VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
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effort, availing ourselves of every advantage, yet 
meeting with continual difficulties, opposed to per- 
petual obstacles, almost in hourly expectation of 
being beset by the ice, and still within the grasp 
and dread of floes. In a direct line we had forced 
our way for 200 miles through these massive floating 
bodies, and yet were not clear of them, a circum- 
stance not only rare, but never before heard of ; 
and, what is still more unusual, we had passed 
through the favourite haunts of whales, and often 
with the advantage of the best water, and yet not 
one had been seen. The further we approached 
towards the south in making our easting, the more 
plainly did the ice exhibit the powerful effect of the 
sun’s irresistible beams, by its being greatly reduced 
in quantity, and by the snow upon its surface lying 
in a state of dissolution. I also observed several 
huge pieces separate by the summer warmth, and 
tumble headlong into the deep. While we were 
on a shooting expedition, it rained for the first time 
since we entered the arctic circle. 
In the course of our progress this day, I observed 
a Larus Crepidatus, (black-toed gull, or Dung Bird,) 
stoop at a large flock of kitty wakes, which were 
seated on the water. The habits of this bird, are 
similar to those of the Larus Parasiticus, by its 
attacking the kittywakes, evidently to induce them 
to get on wing, no doubt, in order to pursue them, 
until they give up the food which they had been 
collecting ; from this system of plunder the Larus 
Crepidatus, as well as the Parasiticus, has acquired 
M 
