184 WHALE-FISHERY. 



chance of success, or, indeed, when to tish else- 

 where is utterly impracticable. Thus calms, storms, 

 and fogs, are great annoyances in the fishery in gene- 

 ral, and frequently prevent it altogether; but at 

 fields the fishery goes on under any of these disad- 

 vantages. As there are several important advan- 

 tages attending the fishery at fields, so, likewise, 

 there are some serious disadvantages, chiefly relat- 

 ing to the safety of the ships engaged in the occu- 

 pation. The motions of fields are rapid, various, 

 and unaccountable, and the power with which they 

 approach each other, and squeeze every resisting 

 object, immense, — hence occasionally vast mischief 

 is produced, which it is not always in the power of 

 the most skilful and attentive master to foresee and 

 prevent. 



Such are the principal advantages and disad- 

 vantages of fields of ice to the whale-fishers. The 

 advantages, however, as above enumerated, though 

 they extend to large floes, do not extend to small 

 floes, or to such fields, how large soever they may 

 be, as contain tracks or holes, or are filled up with 

 thin ice on the interior. Large and firm fields are 

 the most convenient, and likewise the most advan- 

 tageous for the fishery; the most convenient, be- 

 cause the whales, unable to breathe beneath a close 

 extensive field of ice, are obliged to make their ap- 

 pearance again above water among the boats on the 

 look out; and they are most advantageous, because 

 not only the most fish commonly resort to them, but a 



