VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
181 
At this period of the year, the mildness of the tem- 
perature permits the specimens thus manufactured 
to possess but little durability. The shafts rapidly 
decrease in size, until unable to support their ele- 
gant summits, they sink beneath the graceful load. 
About six o’clock we cleared the stream, and came 
into an ocean thickly strewed with small pieces of 
ice, in every fanciful variety of shape, reflecting a 
multitude of colours from the sun-beams ; and cal- 
culated to recall to the mind, descriptions of the en- 
chanted castles of romance. Before dark, we got 
into a clear though turbulent sea, to the infinite 
joy of all who preferred safety to comfort, and 
sailed to the south-west, with the design as Cap- 
tain Scoresby stated, of again entering the ice in 
search of whales in a southern direction, a circum- 
stance that gave me much gratification, in the hope 
that an opportunity might still be afforded, for the 
crew to benefit those interested in the concerns of 
the ship. Captain Scoresby also intimated his in- 
tention to examine the ice in the parallel of Ice- 
land, and in this unexplored region (where, if there 
were any whales, they would be undisturbed and 
easy of capture), to endeavour to make up for that 
deficiency of success, which he had experienced in 
the more northern stations. As the ice is supposed 
usually to lie altogether to the westward of Iceland, 
there was a probability that we should get within 
sight of West Greenland, and proceed homeward 
by the strait between Iceland and Greenland. As 
our coals were nearly expended, there was also a 
