Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/21

Rh deck, the commiseration of every one on board was sincerely given to me. I endeavoured to resign myself to the evils of the disorder, my only dread being, lest I should not be able to accomplish what was so much the object of my voyage—the making improvements in the whale-fishery. Feeling, as I do, for the sufferings of others by violent sea-sickness, sufferings beyond the power of language to describe, I exhort medical men to pay attention to the malady, either to its prevention, or to the mitigation of its effects: they would thus confer a blessing on many, and would receive that best and most grateful reward—a self-approving heart, in having afforded comfort to their fellow-creatures under a most distressing and overpowering disease.

During one of the short intervals in the abatement of the malady, in which I was able to reach the deck, we passed close on the westward side of the Ferroe Islands. They were much obscured by mist: but at intervals, the sun had power to dispel it, and they presented themselves, many in number, and of varied extent, shewing perpendicular cliffs, and other rugged features, with glens much furrowed by the torrents of rain. Of those violent winds, for which they are so renowned, we experienced a specimen in such gusts, as threatened to rend the sails from the yards of the ship. The coast that we saw was without vegetation or fertilized soil, without sign of habitation and apparently destined to be a residence rather for birds than for man. These islands are subject