THE ORDER CETACEA. 69 



fields of ice, along which the boats formed so continuous 

 a line, that no whale could rise without being instantly 

 struck. At the same time it is to be remembered that 

 this situation was one of considerable danger, in conse- 

 quence of the concussions and disruptions to which these 

 plains are liable. 



When the ship is surrounded with floating fragments 

 of ice, the fishery, though difficult, is generally pro- 

 ductive : but it is directly otherwise when those pieces 

 are packed together into a mass impervious to ships or 

 boats, yet leaving numerous holes, through which the 

 whale can mount and respire, without coming to the 

 open margin, or within the reach of his assailants. 



The whalers, as soon as they perceive a whale blowing 

 through one of these apertures, alight upon the ice, and 

 run full speed to the spot, with a lance and a harpoon. 

 To attack the leviathan of the deep in this spot, and 

 under these circumstances, is perilous ; and, even when 

 the whale is killed, the dragging his huge body either 

 over or under the ice to the ship is a most herculean 

 task, and frequently, in the last case, it cannot be 

 effected without cutting it into pieces. 



When the great fields of ice, during the progress of 

 the season, are open at various points, the fishery be- 

 comes then liable to the same evils as occur among 

 packed ice. Still worse is the case when the sea is over- 

 spread with a thin newly-formed crust. The whale easily 

 finds or beats a hole through this covering, where neither 

 the boats can penetrate nor the men walk over it, with- 

 out the most imminent danger. Yet Captain Scoresby 

 mentions a plan by which he continued to carry on his 

 movements, even over a very slender surface of bay-ice. 

 He tied together his whole crew, and made them thus walk 

 in a long line one behind another. There never fell in 



