. Narrative of discovery and adventure in the polar seas and regions [microform] : with illustrations of their climate, geology, and natural history ; and an account of the whale-fishery. Natural history; Sciences naturelles. EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 151 The Company still did not consider the question of a northern passage decided, as, indeed, since the time of Hudson, it could not be said to have been seriously at- tempted. In 1614 they appointed Robert Fotherby, in the Thomasine, to accompany their Greenland fleet of ten ships and two pinnaces, with instructions, while the rest were fishing, to
. Narrative of discovery and adventure in the polar seas and regions [microform] : with illustrations of their climate, geology, and natural history ; and an account of the whale-fishery. Natural history; Sciences naturelles. EARLY POLAR VOYAGES. 151 The Company still did not consider the question of a northern passage decided, as, indeed, since the time of Hudson, it could not be said to have been seriously at- tempted. In 1614 they appointed Robert Fotherby, in the Thomasine, to accompany their Greenland fleet of ten ships and two pinnaces, with instructions, while the rest were fishing, to devote himself mainly to discovery. Baffin accompanied him as pilot. After considerable obstructions, eleven vessels being at one time fast among the ice, the captain, by the 6th of June, pushed on to Hakluyt's Headland. He endeavoured to penetrate through Magdalena Bay, which he calls Maudlen Sound; but the weather was foul, and the ice lay unbroKen from shore to shore. On the 10th he stood farther out, and succeeded in passing to the north of the headland, when he again encountered an impenetrable barrier. He then steered westward, in hopes of discovering a more favourable opening; but the ice trending south- west, he sailed twenty-eight leagues without success, and then returned to the Foreland. About the middle of July, the air becoming clear and favourable, he and Baffin ascended a high hill, to see what prospect there was of getting forward; but as far as they could dis- cern, ice lay upon the sea, which indeed seemed wholly " bound with ice," though in the extreme distance there was an appearance of open water, that inspired some hope. After amusing themselves for some days killing whales, they again mounted a very lofty eminence, from which they saw an extensive channel, but much im- peded with ice. This was Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, which they afterwards ascended to its head, and found a good harbour, very advantageously situated for the whale-fishery. It was
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