WHALE-FISHERY. 189 



close, indeed, that it scarcely affords room for boats 

 to pass through it, and by no means sufficient space 

 for a ship to be navigated amoug it. This kind of 

 situation occurs in somewhat open packs, or in large 

 patches of crowded ice, and affords a fair proba- 

 bility of capturing a whale, though it is seldom ac- 

 complished without a considerable degree of trou- 

 ble. When the ice is very crowded, and the 

 ship can not sail into it with propriety, it is usual 

 to seek out for a mooring to some large mass of 

 ice, if such can be found, extending two or three 

 fathoms or more, under water. A piece of ice of 

 this kind, is capable not only of holding the ship 

 " head-to-wind," but also to windward of the smal- 

 ler ice. The boats then set out in chase of any 

 fish which may be seen; and when one happens to 

 be struck, they proceed in the capture in a similar 

 manner as when in more favourable circumstances, 

 excepting so far as the obstruction which the quality 

 and arrangement of the ice may offer, to the regular 

 system of proceeding. Among crowded ice, for in- 

 stance, the precise direction pursued by the fish is 

 not easily ascertained, nor can the fish itself be 

 readily discovered on its first arrival at the surface, 

 after being struck, on account of the elevation of the 

 intervening masses of ice, and the great quantity of 

 line it frequently takes from the fast-boat. Success 

 in such a situation, depends on the boats being 

 spread widely abroad, and on a judicious arrange- 

 ment of each boat; on a keen look out on the part 



