Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/197

Rh of our being beset; at length a heavy piece, the extent of which could not be discovered, was seen not two ships' length from us, and consequently the most powerful exertion of the crew in towing, with all the other efforts used on such occasions, was employed to keep clear of it. The effect produced by immense masses coming in contact with each other resembled heavy cannonading at a distance; the sound was at once awful, and sublimely grand. At noon the weather began to clear, though not sufficiently to take an observation from the deck; but Captain Scoresby, whose resources seemed inexhaustible, attained his object by measuring from the mast head the altitude of the sun from its reflected image upon the water, which was so smooth as to act the part of a mirror: our latitude, thus ascertained, was found to be 75° 30′ N. and longitude 12° W. This made me still more anxious for clear weather, as from our situation we ought to see the west land. At six o'clock in the evening the fog began to disperse, and in two hours I had the gratification of seeing, about forty-five miles distant, the land on the eastern side of old or lost Greenland.

This remote region called by geographers of northern countries, West Greenland, is presumed to reach from the southernmost point of Cape Farewell and Statenbrook on the right side, in the 60th degree of north latitude, north-east towards Spitzbergen as far as the 80th degree of north latitude. This eastern side is almost totally