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APPENDIX. 
of wine, and primed with pieces of quick match,) to 
permit the fury of the fire issuing through them to pro- 
duce instantaneous destruction. 
The harpooner appointed to the service of the gun-boat 
getting better, and on the Tth of June several whales 
having been seen, all the boats were despatched in readi- 
ness for pursuit, and ordered to different stations near the 
edge of the ice to await the re-appearance of the fish : the 
particulars of this expedition have already been stated in 
the journal. Here I had the mortification of seeing five 
or six ineffectual heaves of hand-harpoons at fish, which 
would certainly have been taken by a gun ; and fortune 
now conspired to disappoint me, for not a single fish after- 
wards approached us nearer than 2 or 300 yards, though 
every effort was made both by lying in wait, and in chase. 
The harpooner, having evidently received the contagion of 
prejudice, his conduct so displeased me, that in the anger 
of my feelings, I determined to take no further part in the 
exertion ; and, strange to say, after the following day, 
there never was a chance of taking a fish, although we 
sailed through many hundred leagues of apparently as fine 
fishing water and as favourable ice as ever were seen. 
The opinion formed of the implements'^ by the many ex- 
perienced persons to whom they were exhibited when in 
Greenland, was without exception, that of general appro- 
bation ; and I shall here give a copy of a letter from a 
Greenland Commander, whose experience in the gun-har- 
poon has particularly distinguished him, and whose opi- 
* Should they be acceptable to the public, and worthy the 
adoption of those concerned in the whale-fishery, I respectfully 
beg leave to recommend Mr. Beckwith, Gun Manufacturer, 
Skinner-street, London, and Mr. Samuel Moore, Smith, Yar- 
mouth, as persons eminently qualified to give them the highest 
degree of perfection and utility. 
