206 ON THE EFFECTING OF 



is easily discoverable on the chart from its superior 

 extent. 



The latitude of the next larger island to the southward 

 was formed, by observation, to be 75° 3' N. ; and the 

 variation determined the same time, by an azimuth com- 

 pass, and corrected to the time at Greenwich, was exactly 

 821°. 



On the l6th, ten whales were remarked invariably 

 running eastward and westward, out from the Greenland 

 waters, and others again pursuing a contrary course. The 

 whale hunters are so convinced of this, that they sail 

 always in that direction when in high latitudes. Hence 

 the obvious conclusion must be, that the further emigration 

 of those animals northward is limited to the Linnaean Isles ; 

 and that too, from the impossibility of their obtaining a 

 supply of air underneath the icy continent. Indeed, when 

 a whale is struck, if it happen to run for the ice, the hunters 

 are almost certain of its capture, as it must come out 

 again for breath, when the boats being arranged along 

 the edge of the field are sure to be ready to repeat the 

 blow the instant the animal re-appears. I saw one, which 

 was so wounded, succeed in spying out a small hole within 

 that ice field, where scarcely more than the head had 

 access to the air ; and there the creature rose in imagined 

 security, at a great distance from the edge ; but the blow- 



