232 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
One whale was indeed seen, but this being in ra¬ 
pid motion, was neither sufficient encouragement 
to remain, nor to persevere into a still more south¬ 
ern latitude, to which my desire for further dis¬ 
coveries strongly inclined me. 
In the forenoon, having a light breeze from the 
westward, we bore away to the eastward, for the 
purpose of doubling the chain of icebergs lying 
off Cape Brewster. Their number was found to 
be still greater than I had before apprehended. 
The sea, throughout an area of almost twenty 
miles in diameter, was almost covered with these 
prodigious floating bodies. At one time, I count¬ 
ed above 500 from the mast-head, of which scarce¬ 
ly any was less than the hull of a ship. About a 
hundred of them appeared to be as high as our 
mast-head. Some were certainly twice this 
height, or 200 feet above the surface of the sea, 
and several hundreds of yards in extent. One, 
which I had a good opportunity of estimating, 
was at least a mile in circumference, and 100 feet 
in height; three others were about 1800 feet in 
circumference, and 150 feet in height; and an¬ 
other was about 1000 feet in circumference, and 
200 feet in height. They assumed a great va¬ 
riety of forms, and some difference of tints ; but 
the prevailing appearance was that of cliffs or 
islands of chalk. In recent fractures, however, the 
