Captain Parry^s intended Ea:pedition to the North Pole. 103 



one of the whale-fishery, now so impoverished, may be much 

 promoted. 



Many alterations have taken place in the physical distribution 

 of whales, originating probably in the persecution with which 

 they have been so vigorously followed during the last 200 years. 

 Some think that the present scarcity is caused by the numbers 

 captured having over-reached the breeding of that animal ; but 

 the perspicuous view we have in Mr Scoresby's chronological 

 account of the whale-fishery, would rather suggest the idea that 

 captures are now more rare, on account of the scattered haunts 

 to which persecution has driven it. About SOO years ago they 

 were taken in abundance on the shores and in the bays of Jan 

 Mayen Island ; now even a straggler is scarce ever seen in that 

 situation. As soon as they were expelled from thence, they 

 abounded in the bays of Spitzbergen, where they were slain in 

 vast numbers, till, alarmed by their foes, they fled, and are now 

 scattered abroad among the ice ; and their former haunts, which 

 have been relinquished for a hundred years, are now occupied 

 only by the tremendous razor-back and ugly sea-horse. 



The sea adjoining Spitzbergen is the usual resort of what are 

 called the Greenland fishermen. Their fortune depends on 

 their success during the two early months of the voyage, for 

 whales all disappear by the middle of June. It is, I think, not 

 improbable that this migration may happen as soon as the ice is 

 open in more eastern seas, where a successful fishery might be 

 prosecuted during the late months, if these remote regions can 

 be safely navigated : a point of much importance, the practica- 

 bility of which will be ascertained during the present voyage ; 

 for the Hecla being stationed at Cloven Cliff to wait the return 

 of Captain Parry and his party, the rest of the crew are to be 

 occupied with the boats in surveying the eastern shores of Spitz- 

 bergen, concerning which all our knowledge is derived from 

 the Dutch, whose accounts of other parts in the Frozen Ocean 

 have been found dangerously erroneous. ' 



Boats, or very small vessels, appear best adapted for examin- 

 ing the sea east from Spitzbergen, being best qualified for navi- 

 gating the narrows among ice-fields ; and, from their portability, 

 are not only less liable to besetment, but may escape the ruin in 

 which they would otherwise be involved, from the approxima- 



