Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/124

92 slightest intermission to run out four of these. The direction of its course being observed by Captain Scoresby, he despatched boats round the point, and so judiciously did he arrange their situation in a bight about a mile and a half distant, that on the fish rising to breathe, it received a second harpoon, of which we were informed by the welcome signal of the jack; soon after a similar signal was raised of a third harpoon being fast; the fish having been perfectly exhausted, it now gave little trouble, and presently we heard the grateful sound of three cheers to announce its capture. The five boats towed it to the side of the ship, when I left the operation of flincing for the enjoyment of some rest, having had only four hours during the last forty-eight, and endured more anxiety, exertion, and fatigue, than I had undergone for many years. The bone of one of the whales was reported to measure ten feet eleven inches, and of the other ten feet seven inches in length; they were both males.

The ship being cleaned, and the men having enjoyed some rest, we unmoored. As the wind began to blow, and the adjoining ice threatened to incommode us, we sailed to the westward, and, on coming to a field of ice, Captain Scoresby urged me to go aloft with him, and examine its extent; I complied, and having ascended with some difficulty, was most richly repaid, for this continent of ice was unlike any thing that I had ever before seen; it was composed of a series of rugged hills varying in size, and rising in sharp