VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
153 
to have much opened to the west, the whale fishers 
extended their pursuit to that point of the compass ; 
and during the fishing season of last year, the ice 
had sufficiently moved away, to admit not only of 
the land being seen, but to leave no impediment to 
the approach towards it. Captain Scoresby, indeed, 
was so near the shore, that he had an opportunity 
of landing ; but the concerns of the fishing which 
necessarily occupied his first attention, prevented 
him from making those investigations and surveys 
which he would have gladly undertaken. This 
year he had hoped that the fishing might have led 
him again to the coast, and that some lucky circum- 
stance might have afforded him an opportunity 
(without trespassing on the duties of his voyage) 
of ascertaining the fate of the lost colony, and of 
fixing the position of the most remarkable points of 
land. I had also an earnest intention to have 
gathered such correct geographical descriptions as 
were in my power, and to have made a faithful 
delineation of every circumstance interesting to the 
philosopher and naturalist. 
I cannot take my leave of this part of the un- 
known world, without expressing my anxious desire 
to exalt the fame of my country in discovery. And 
although disappointed of being among those who 
are to take possession of lost Greenland ; — to deli- 
neate the extent of the country, which, from mea- 
surement by latitude and longitude is more than five 
hundred thousand square miles ; to ascertain whether 
it forms a part of the continent of America in a con- 
