862 Captain Scoresby's Journal of a Voyage to the 
shortening of the days : On the 2d of the month it was observed 
that the sun was above the horizon at midnight ; but now they 
had 7 hours 36 minutes betwixt sun-setting and sun-rising, with 
an increase of 10 minutes in the length of each succeeding 
night. Hence the shortening of the days was so rapid, as to 
be almost perceptible between one day and the next, without 
the use of a watch ; added to the gloom common to the night, 
in the absence of the moon, the darkness was much increased 
by the deep and thick fog. It was therefore determined to 
leave the coast, and proceed homewards,— a determination which 
was acted upon in the evening of this day. 
In the 12th chapter of the Journal, which follows, there is 
an interesting retrospective view of the researches made upon 
the eastern coast of Greenland, shewing that the extent of coast 
surveyed was about 800 miles. The errors of former charts are 
pointed out, — the general characters of the coast delineated,— 
and, from a comparison of the inlets on the newly discovered 
coast, with those on the west coast, mentioned by Sir Charles 
Giesecke, it is inferred that Greenland is probably a great group 
of islands . The productions of the country are next enumerated, 
— and a full statement of the characters of the relics of the hu- 
man inhabitants lead to the inference, that its population is 
Esquimaux, with an intermixture of Europeans, probably of the 
ancient colonies planted by the Icelanders. 
<e Hence, there is some reason to believe that these colonies were 
not entirely depopulated, — that they are not yet extinct ; though it 
is more than probable that such of the colonists as outlived the 
* black-death/ and the privation they must have suffered, when 
their supplies were cut off, as it is said they were, by the descent of 
the polar ice, would cease to be a distinct people ; — for being then 
reduced to the necessity of following the occupation of the Esqui- 
maux, and of copying their manners, they would probably become 
gradually incorporated with the aborigines, until few traces of their 
original civilization remained. 
“ The very extraordinary circumstances connected with these co- 
lonies of Icelanders, as regards their original planting,- — flourishing 
condition, — reception of Christianity, — and their total separation 
from the world, since the beginning of the fifteenth century ; — and 
the very important question respecting their fate, to which their 
early history gives rise, rendered researches for inhabitants on this 
coast an object to me of the most intense interest. Hence, it may 
readily be conceived what was the nature of my disappointment, 
when, on descending to the latitude of 69° 30', where I was only at 
