WHALE-FISHERY. 101 



}Vhen the fish is killed, it is often at a distance 

 from the ship, and so circumstanced, that the ship 

 can not get near it. In such cases, the fish must 

 be towed by the boats to the ship; an operation 

 which, in crowded ice, is most troublesome and la- 

 borious. 



4. Bay -ice fishing. — Bay-ice constitutes a situa- 

 tion, which, though not particularly dangerous, is 

 yet, on the whole, one of the most troublesome in 

 which whales are killed. In sheets of bay-ice, the 

 whales find a very effectual shelter; for so long as 

 the ice will not " carry a man," they can not be ap- 

 approached with a boat, without producing such a 

 noise, as most certainly warns them of the intended 

 assault. And if a whale, by some favourable acci- 

 dent, were struck, the difficulties of completing the 

 capture are always numerous, and sometimes prove 

 insurmountable. The whale having free locomo- 

 tion beneath the ice, the fishers pursue it under 

 great disadvantage. The fishers can not push their 

 boats towards it but with extreme difficulty; while 

 the whale, invariably warned by the noise of their 

 approach, possesses every facility' for avoiding its 

 enemies. In the year 1813, I adopted a uqw plan 

 of fishing in bay-ice, which was attended with the 

 most fortunate result. The ship under my com- 

 mand (the Esk of Whitby) was frozen into a sheet 

 of bay-ice, included in a triangular space, formed 

 by massive fields and floes. Here a number of 

 small whales were seen sporting around us, in 



