as connected with tfte tate Disaster s In BaffiiCs Bay. 145 



his friends must have come from the moon. Indeed, if we re- 

 flect on the direction of the currents in the bay, and that there, 

 as in Spitzbergen sea, northerly gales may prevail during the 

 more inclement months, we may conclude, that, notwithstand- 

 ing the lowness of the temperature of the water, it should be 

 nearly free from ice *. Now this open space has been found 

 most abundantly frequented by whales, and is perfectly habit- 

 able. If so, a number of men suitably equipped might establish 

 themselves on the coast, passing the winter, and during the pro- 

 per season might secure abundance of blubber, as they were 

 wont in former times, on the shores of Spitzbergen, and so fur- 

 nish cargoes for vessels visiting the country at a safe season of 

 the year, manned with no more hands than what would be suf- 

 ficient for their navigation. Independent of the wealth pro- 

 duced by the sea, the land abounds in black, white and red foxes, 

 whose skins are valuable, being covered with a soft fur. No 

 doubt such an establishment could not flourish over a few years, 

 as the whale, wise beast ! soon deserts the scene of persecution. 

 Nevertheless, at present it might be a speculation of importance, 

 not only to those who engage in it, but might prove useful also to 

 the miserable natives, who, amidst the most severe privations, 

 have continued so long in this forlorn part of the earth as to have 

 outlived even the tradition of their origin. Acquaintance with 

 Europeans might be the means of contributing to their comforts, 

 and of rendering their residence in the Arctic Highlands more 

 human. But these poor creatures, abandoned to their fate in 

 this corner of the frozen north, if not destined to die out, can 

 never in such a situation be otherwise than low in the scale of 

 civilization. 



The whale-fishery has not yet been prosecuted in Hudson's 



• " That these north-east gales are sometimes very severe, is demonstrated 

 by a discovery made by Captain Ross, whilst exploring the west side of the 

 entrance to Lancaster Sound, — there we found the skeleton of a whale full 500 

 yards above high water mark. It had doubtless been thrown dead on the 

 beach, and when the storm blew from the north-east, the train of ice-fields 

 was drifted on the shore, and by the violence of the pressure, the ice-ledge 

 was slid over the land, shoving before it the whale's carcass. We have wit- 

 nessed similar phenomena on the shores of Spitzbergen." — This we consider 

 to be an important geological fact — Edit. 



OCTOBEU — DECEMBER 1830. K 



