n 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
green-colour blended with a light brown or brassy 
tint. These colours are produced, (as discovered 
by Captain Scoresby) by myriads of small animal- 
culae of the Mollusca family, with which this part 
of the ocean abounds, and which are so minute, 
as scarcely to be visible to the eye, even with 
microscopic aid, several hundreds of them being 
contained in every drop. These smaller give 
nourishment to a larger class of medusa, from which 
whales are supposed to derive a considerable part 
of their subsistence, filtering or separating them 
from the fluid by means of two rows of fringed 
whalebone, which will be spoken of hereafter. 
Being now in a situation where whales might be 
seen, and the afternoon being fine, all the crew 
were called to get up the whale-boats and prepare 
them for service. These boats are from twenty- 
five to twenty-seven feet in length, and five and a 
half in breadth ; sharp at both ends, and rather 
finer at the stern than at the stem. The required 
properties of these boats are, buoyancy with liveli- 
ness in a sea, speed for pursuit, and facility of 
turning to follow the rapid movements of the whale. 
The first two of these properties are produced by 
the rise in the floor, given in their construction ; 
the second, by the fine entrance, and run at each 
end; and the last by the curvature of the keel. 
Six lines, of two inches and a quarter in circum- 
ference and of one hundred and twenty fathoms in 
length each, making an extent of one thousand four 
hundred and forty yards, were distributed to each 
