188 Dr Latta's Observations on the Greenland Sea^ 



following year (1818) the Discovery Ships, commanded by Cap- 

 tain Ross, penetrated the deeper parts of Baffin''s Bay, and found 

 them swarming with whales. Since that discovery this fishing- 

 ground has been annually resorted to by our whalers, notwith- 

 standing the manyfold perils of the voyage, of which we shall 

 now endeavour to give a general view. 



The whaler of the present day generally reaches the ice at 

 the entrance of Davis' Straits about the end of March or begin- 

 ning of April, amidst fogs and tempests, extreme cold, and long 

 dark nights. He immediately commences his search after whales, 

 hoping to find them in their ancient haunts, but seldom meeting 

 with any thing to encourage his delay; he, through the inju- 

 dicious orders of his employers, or his own misguided zeal, im- 

 mediately stretches northward towards the regions where whales 

 are abundant. Two routes lead thither, the one along the 

 eastern, the other along the western side of Baffin's Bay, the sea 

 in the middle being, at this early season, totally unnavigable, 

 from the vast quantity of ice formed during winter. Being 

 aware of the great advantage of an unimpeded western passage, 

 his first business is to seek it out. There the sea is sometimes 

 opened by the south-west wind, which, as in the Spitzbergen 

 seas, prevails during spring and summer, driving the ice off the 

 land. He very seldom succeeds so early in the season, and in 

 the attempt is in great hazard of being " beset," for unless the 

 wind prevents it, he will always find the western shores of the 

 sea, in the frozen regions, more hampered with ice than the 

 eastern. Besides, the irregularities of the coast of the west land, 

 and the course of the great southerly current, which is only 

 sensibly felt there, are very inimical to such an attempt. From 

 Home Bay^ in Latitude 68° N., down to the Arctic Circle^ the 

 land stretches out into the bay, forming a promontory, which is 

 opposed to the course of the current. This promontory, assisted 

 by the many icebergs stranded on its shallows, arrests the drift- 

 ing ice, to the hinderance of the navigator's farther progress, 

 who, anxious to reach the waters where whales abound, is in- 

 duced to try the more dangerous eastern passage, which, though 

 pregnant throughout with difficulties, does not become emi- 

 nently perilous until he gets beyond what constituted the north- 

 ern limits of the station frequented by the old fishermen, who 



