152 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
nearest hills on the eastern side; they are less 
than those on the west side, which I supposed from 
hence, because they were covered with snow. The 
country where Frobisher’s strait is imagined to be, 
appeared pretty much above the level, and con- 
stantly covered with ice. I do not know that I 
saw more than two or three little hills that could 
be supposed land ; on the contrary, towards the 
north-east, and north-west, the rocks plainly rear 
their heads above the ice, and some of the tops are 
entirely naked of snow; I saw particularly one 
long hill between two huge rocks, whose bare 
backs looked altogether of the natural colour of the 
earth. Were I to give my sentiments of this whole 
icy region, that cuts off the communication with 
the east side, I should imagine that as far as relates 
to the way, the journey might be practicable ; for 
the plains of ice did not seem so dangerous, or the 
pits in it so deep as they are said to be.” 
The whale fishery having, until a few years since, 
been confined to the northward, about the latitude 
of 78° north, and never exceeding the longitude of 
2° west, no ships consequently ever approached 
near the coast of Greenland. Captain Scoresby, 
however, deviating from the accustomed track of 
the whale fishers, in 1817, penetrated into the 
western ice, and made the same land seen by us 
this day, and which appears to be that discerned, 
in 1654, by Gaal Hamkes, and which is laid down 
in modern charts and called after its discoverer. 
The position of the ice having lately been observed 
