92 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
slightest intermission to run out four of these. The 
direction of its course being observed by Captain 
Scoresby, he despatched boats round the point, and 
so judiciously did he arrange their situation in a 
bight about a mile and a half distant, that on the 
fish rising to breathe, it received a second harpoon, 
of which we were informed by the welcome signal 
of the jack ; soon after a similar signal was raised 
of a third harpoon being fast ; the fish having been 
perfectly exhausted, it now gave little trouble, and 
presently we heard the grateful sound of three 
cheers to announce its capture. The five boats 
towed it to the side of the ship, when I left the 
operation of flincing for the enjoyment of some rest, 
having had only four hours during the last forty- 
eight, and endured more anxiety, exertion, and 
fatigue, than I had undergone for many years. The 
bone of one of the whales was reported to measure 
ten feet eleven inches, and of the other ten feet 
seven inches in length ; they were both males. 
The ship being cleaned, and the men 
June 9 . 1 • • 1 . 1 
having enjoyed some rest, we unmoored. 
As the wdnd began to blow, and the adjoining ice 
threatened to incommode us, we sailed to the west- 
ward, and, on coming to a field of ice. Captain 
Scoresby urged me to go aloft with him, and ex- 
amine its extent ; I complied, and having ascended 
with some dijfficulty, was most richly repaid, for this 
continent of ice was unlike any thing that I had 
ever before seen; it was composed of a series of 
rugged hills varying in size, and rising in sharp 
