152 ON THE EFFECTING OF 



more free from compact ice than in any former voyage 

 they ever made." The masters of .vhale ships are for- 

 bidden by a solemn oath,* which they must subscribe to, in 

 the Custom House, before clearing out the voyage, to seek 

 nothing but blubber ; and this oath, or its reward from their 

 owners, if faithfully kept in view, unfits them for affording 

 proper or satisfactory information to philosophical inquiry. 

 The trite vulgar phrase, " for want of a better that must 

 do," applies to such an investigation with no complimen- 

 tary effect. If accurate information be desirable on this 

 important subject, why derive it from such erroneous 

 chance, wherein the binding of a parliamentary oath for- 

 bids the deponent to know any thing of the matter ? 



The reader will look with surprise at such language as 

 the following, conveying information on an important 

 and philosophic subject, " Masses of ice, larger than ever 

 before known, were seen floating in the Atlantic, and from 

 their magnitude and solidity, reached the fortieth degree 

 of latitude before they were melted into a tluid state." It 



• I master of the ship make oath, that it is really 



and truly my firm purpose, and determined resolution, that the said ship shall, 

 as soon as licence shall be granted, forthwith proceed so manned, furnished, 

 and accoutred, on a voyage to the Greenland seas, or Davis's Strait, or the 

 seas adjacent, there in the now approaching season, to use the utmost en- 

 deavour of myself and ship's company, to take whales or other creatures 

 living in the seas, and on no other design or view of profit, in my present 

 voyage, and to import the whale fins, oil, and blubber thereof Into the port 

 ef Sworn, 8tc. at the Custom House &c. 



