were enamelled with beds of snow and ice, and in the interior mountains rose beyond mountains, till they melted in the distant horizon. The beach of this cape was found nearly covered with the sought to defend them against the predatory tribes which hovered round. But the most important discoveries made by Scoresby were in 1822, when he sailed in the ship Baffin, of three hundred and twenty-one tons, and fifty men, for the whale fishery. In search of a better fishing-ground, he was led to the eastern coast of Greenland-a tract absolutely unknown, unless at a few points which the Dutch had approached; and it formed a continuous line with the shore on which the colonies of old Greenland, the subject of much controversy, were supposed to have been situated. On the 8th of June, in 74° 6' north latitude, the coast was discovered, extending from north to south about ninety miles; and of which the most northerly point was concluded to be that named on the charts Gale Hamkes's Land, while the most southerly appeared to be Hudson's Hold-with-Hope. Scoresby's ambition, however, to mount some of its crags, which no European foot had ever trodden, was defeated by an impassable barrier of ice; and a similar one having closed in behind him, he was obliged to sail back and forward several days through a narrow channel. During this interval he had a good opportunity of taking the bearings and directions of the principal objects on land. The latitude, as given in the maps, was tolerably correct, and was, indeed, his only guide in tracing the positions; for the longitude, after the most careful observation, was found to differ seven degrees from that in the best charts, and ten degrees from what is found in those usually supplied to the whale-fishers. The country was generally mountainous, rugged, and barren, bearing much resemblance to Spitzbergen, though less covered with snow. Scoresby followed the usual system of naming the more prominent objects in the territory embraced by his discoveries. The two principal bays, or inlets, were designated Captain Kater and Sir Walter Scott; while two spacious forelands, or projecting peninsulas - the former supposed to be an island- were assigned to Dr. Wollaston and Sir Everard Home. Other bays and capes were bestowed on some of the author's personal friends. He now made a movement eastward, in search of whales, of which he found no traces in the vicinity of land. On the 19th of July the navigators came in view of a range of coast of a very bold and peculiar character, extending about forty miles. It presented a mountain chain from three to four thousand feet high, rising at once from the beach in precipitous cliffs, which terminated in numberless peaks, cones, and pyramids. In one instance there appeared to rise six or seven tall parallel chimneys, one of which, crowned with two vertical towers, was called Church Mount. This coast received the name of Liverpool, while to the mountains was given that of Roscoe. The range of shore terminated at Cape Hodgson; beyond which, however, steering south-west, they descried three other promontories; to these were successively given the appellation of Cape Lister, Cape Swainson, and Cape Tobin. Here Scoresby landed; when he found the beach much lower than that further to the north, and consisting, in a great measure, of loose, stony hills. After some examination, he came, near Cape Swainson, to an enclosure similar to those which the Esquimaux construct for their summer huts, and within which were hollow structures, like bee-hives, such as they use for stores. Resuming his course at sea, and still holding southwestward, he now discovered a spacious inlet, to which, in looking upwards, no boundary could be seen. While penetrating this opening, he observed another sound branching to the northward behind the Liverpool coast, and supposed to form it into an island. The opposite shore of this entrance was named Jameson's Land, from the eminent professor of natural history in Edinburgh. Beyond Cape Hooker, the southern point of the coast just described, another large inlet stretched towards the north, to which was given the name of Basil Hall. It had every appearance of converting Jameson's Land into an island; and the coast to the westward of it received the name of Milne's Land. Between Cape Leslie, constituting the northern point of that coast, and Cape Stevenson, on the opposite shore, the original opening continued to stretch into the interior, without any appearance of a termination. There appeared a strong presumption that, instead of the continuous mass of land which our maps represent, Greenland composes only an immense archipelago of islands. To this great inlet, the entrance of which was bounded by Cape Tobin on the north, and Cape Brewster on the south, the navigator gave the name of his father, though posterity will probably be apt to associate with himself the name of "Scoresby's Sound." These coasts, especially that of Jameson's Land, were found richer in plants and verdure than any others seen on this occasion within the Arctic circle, and almost meriting the distinction of Greenland. The grass rose in one place to a foot in height, and there were meadows of several acres, which appeared nearly equal to any in England. But nowhere could a human being be discovered, though there were everywhere traces of recent and even frequent inhabitation. At the foot of certain cliffs, named after Dr. Neill, were several hamlets of some extent. The huts appear to have been winter abodes, not constructed of snow-slabs, like the cells of the Esquimaux of Hudson's Bay, but resembling those of the Greenlanders, dug deep in the ground, entered by a long winding passage or funnel, and roofed with a wooden frame overlaid with moss and earth. The mansion had thus the appearance of a slight hillock. Near the hamlets were excavations in the earth, serving as graves, where implements of hunting, found along with the bones of the deceased, proved the prevalence here of the general belief of savage nations, that the employments of man in the future life will exactly resemble those of the present. On emerging from this large sound, and proceeding southward, Scoresby discovered another continuous range of coast. Disappointed as to any appearance of whales on this coast, he again steered to the northward, where icebergs surrounded him, amounting at one place to the number of five hundred. This course brought him in a |