304 
VOYAGE FOE THE DISCOVERY 
1820. How far the plan suggested above may be considered advantageous, as 
regards a late or an early market for the oil, or whether more profit may 
be expected by employing the ships in making a Baltic voyage, as is some- 
times the case, after that from Davis’ Strait is completed, than is likely to 
result from a full cargo of blubber at the end of the season, are circumstances 
of which I am not competent to form a judgment, and which must be left to the 
consideration of the ship-owners themselves. I shall only, therefore, add on 
this subject, that it has been suggested to me by one of those gentlemen, that a 
ship might, perhaps, be employed to great advantage, by occupying the 
early part of the season (till the middle of June, for instance,) at Spitzbergen, 
and then running down into Davis’ Strait, to complete her fishery in the 
way I have proposed. 
Wed, 27, We ran to the southward and eastward with a fresh and favourable breeze, 
and without meeting with any ice after leaving its main body, except one or 
two icebergs, and a few straggling pieces which, however, make it neces- 
sary to be very cautious in running at night, especially when there is any 
sea, the breaking of which cannot easily be distinguished from a mass of ice. 
On some occasions, therefore, it was necessary to heave-to for a few hours 
at night, a precaution which I should always recommend in the latter part of 
the season, till a ship has passed well to the eastward of Cape Farewell. It 
is remarked by the whalers, that they usually have a gale of wind to en- 
counter off this headland in returning home from their fishery, which has 
also occurred on the two occasions on which I have passed it at this 
season. On the 30th of September, in the evening, there was every appear- 
ance of unfavourable weather, and the ships were made snug before dark. 
Soon after this, a gale came on from the northward and westward, which 
October, continued to blow hard, with little intermission, during the 1st and 2d of 
1.&2. October. The fall of the mercury in the barometer was, on this occasion, 
very gradual, and scarcely such, perhaps, as to be considered a fair warning 
of an approaching gale, being only from 29.49 at noon on the 30th, to 
29,38 at. six P.M., and 29.31 at midnight. On the morning of the 2d, it 
had fallen to 28.66, at which time the gale had been blowing hard for 
more than twenty-four hours. The wind had somewhat moderated on the 
