[ 44 ] 
fiction, have afterwards, by fome 
unexpected accident, been wholly 
cleared from fuch imputations. 
The occurrences which I am now 
about to relate, may, in a great 
meafure, be clafTed with thofe 
which, if not utterly incredible, 
are at leafl improbable ; they feem- 
ing to have been ftudioufly em- 
bellifhed with fuch circumftances 
as would give them mofl the air 
of the marvellous. I mufl: con- 
fefs, that I myfelf was, in the be- 
ginning, at a lofs what opinion to 
form, when Mr. Vernezobre, 
Director of the whale - fifhery, 
tranfmitted to me the firft account 
of them from Archangel. But as 
the people concerned in the fol- 
lowing 
