150 WHALE-FISHERY. 



of the season; and that those inhabiting the latitude 

 of 78° and of 76°, a re likewise distinct tribes. 



Notwithstanding, if we descend to particulars, the 

 great variety and uncertainty which appear in the 

 nature of the situations preferred by the whales, and 

 the apparent dissimilarity observed in their habits, 

 it is probable, that, were the different tribes distin- 

 guished, we should find a much greater degree of 

 similarity in their choice of situation, and in their 

 general habits than we are at present able to trace. 



Annoyed as the whales are by the fishers, it is 

 not surprising that they sometimes vary their usual 

 places of resort, and it is not improbable, were they 

 left undisturbed for a few years, but that they might 

 return to the bays and sea-coasts of Spitzbergen and 

 its neighbouring islands, as was formerly the cus- 

 tom with certain tribes, at the commencement of this 

 fishery. We are doubtless in a great measure indebt- 

 ed to the necessity they are under, of performiug the 

 function of respiration in the air, at stated intervals, 

 for being able to meet with them at all; though the 

 coast of Spitzbergen may possibly possess powerful 

 attraction to the mysticete, by affording them a great- 

 er abundance of palatable food than the interior west- 

 ern waters, covered perpetually by the ice. From 

 this necessity of respiring in the air, we may account 

 for their appearance in the open sea in the early 

 part of the spring. The ice at this season, connect- 

 ed by the winter's frost, is so consolidated, as to pre- 

 vent the whales from breathing among it, excepting 



