VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
189 
be either worthy of observation or amusing; ; they 
may be thus briefly related: an uninterrupted series 
of most unfavourable weather conspired to try our 
patience ; for nine successive days, it blew with the 
greatest violence, and without intermission, (often 
attended with heavy rain) directly in opposition to 
us, by which we were driven |upwards of three 
hundred miles, not only out of our course, but into 
the horribly agitated Atlantic Ocean. 
With a delight beyond the power of 
Sept. 3 . express, we at day-break, saw 
the north end of Ireland ; the wind blowing a gale 
prevented our ascertaining with correctness, what 
part it was ; consequently we kept sailing on and 
off with great caution, to avert the perils attendant 
on a stormy night, and the dangers of the coast. 
Finding it impossible to keep our 
Sept. 4. account of the adverse wind, 
and the extreme violence with which it blew, we 
endeavoured, towards dark, to seek shelter under 
the lee of Rachlin Island, very thick weather having 
set in. 
The light of the day appearing, we en- 
Sept. .5. proceed on our course, 
though the fog was so thick, that we could not see 
three hundred yards from the ship. At six o’clock 
the curtain of this immense vapour was withdrawn, 
and unfolded the lofty promontory of Fair Head, so 
beautifully distinguished by the noble basaltic co- 
lumns that adorn its brow, and render it one of 
