97 



CHAPTER V. 



ARCTIC ZOOLOGY. 



X HE subjects of" zoology that came under observation 

 in the northern seas, particularly in Davis's Strait, were 

 pretty numerous. The main object of the voyage for 

 which the ship had been sent out, being the pursuit of the 

 whale, gave continual opportunities of traversing the latter 

 sea in many directions, and consequently of seeing most 

 of the animals, those especially of the larger sorts, which 

 are there to be met with. The favourable state of the 

 season, moreover, and the prevalence of north-easterly 

 winds at an early part of the spring, produced unusually 

 solvent effects on the field ice, so that the increasing power 

 of the sun's heat caused it to break up much sooner than 

 had been known for many years before, by which means 

 the ships had access to higher latitudes than they had been 

 ever known to reach at any former period. The arrange- 

 ment of such animals as I have seen is conformable to the 



o 



