VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
187 
the ice. All hopes of further success in the fish- 
ing were now at an end, as perseverance would 
only be attended with danger and needless ex- 
penses; so our course was directed for England, 
from the following causes, as they were expressed 
in the Captain’s log. “ The incessant prevalence 
of fog, the increased darkness of the nights, the 
prevailing tempestuous weather, and the occurrence 
of ice to the eastward of Langaness, were cir- 
cumstances which combined to render the prose- 
cution of my design for trying for whales, on the 
west coast of Iceland, not merely hazardous, but 
impracticable. I had entertained considerable 
hopes of the result of an examination of this un- 
frequented and undisturbed sea ; especially as in 
our advance to the southward, we passed several 
patches of great extent of turbid water, and of a 
quality very congenial to the habits and feeding of 
the whale. The fog, which we in a degree cal- 
culated on, would have been a great difficulty to 
contend with ; but the occurrence of ice being now 
unexpected, was an additional difficulty, and of 
such a nature as to leave no hope of our succeed- 
ing, except at a risk which the prospect of success 
would by no means warrant. The sea, about Ice- 
land, is at this season, I believe, almost invariably 
free from ice, even on the N. W. part, where its 
approach is nearest. The circumstance of its now 
lying so far to the eastward must, therefore, be ex- 
tremely rare. During the forty-one days preceding 
this, we had but three clear days, with two or 
