VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
33 
inconceivably fine. Having thus forced a passage, 
we were enabled to keep our course all night. 
The morning was beautifully bright, 
when we fell in with eight ships, that, 
like ourselves, had been endeavouring to get to the 
northward, and spoke one of them, from whom we 
learned, that neither they nor any other ship they 
had met with, (though some had been long upon 
the station,) had seen a whale. Finding the ice to 
be impenetrable, they all sailed away, with the ex- 
ception of the Manchester of Hull, whose master 
came on board to request that Captain Scoresby 
would allow his surgeon to visit a man under serious 
indisposition ; this was most readily granted, and 
the surgeon despatched. From the commander of 
this ship, the following information was obtained : 
‘ — ‘‘ that he had been upwards of a month on this 
station ; had spoken many vessels, none of which 
had seen a whale; and had also found, with them, 
the ice so close, as to prevent further progress to 
the north. ’’ This, according with the observations 
which we had made of the extraordinary compactness 
of the ice, and of the direction in which it was run- 
ning, confirmed Captain Scoresby in the opinion 
that it was what is called a close season, with a 
greater extension of the ice than had occurred for 
several years. It may here be interesting to point 
out the distinction between an open and a close sea- 
son. The most usual course of the summer ice, 
which constitutes what is called an open season in 
the Greenland sea, commences about two degrees 
D 
