IS2 -WHALE-FISHEllY- 



011 the hows and stem, and additional planks on the 

 sides. Besides the increased expence of the ships, 

 a greater quantity of fishing stores became needful. 

 When fishing among the ice, the whales, after ha- 

 ving been struck, frequently penetrated to a great 

 distance, out of the reach of their assailants, drag- 

 ging the line away, until at length they found it 

 necessary to cut it, to prevent farther loss. Hence, 

 by the frequency of disasters among their ships, the 

 increased expence of their equipment, and the lia- 

 bility of losing their fishing materials, such an ad- 

 ditional expence was occasioned, as required the 

 practice of the most rigid economy to counterbalance. 

 The destruction among the shipping by the ice, in the 

 Dutch fleet alone, was frequently near twenty sail 

 in one year, and, on some occasions, above that num- 

 ber. The Greenlandmen of the present day, being 

 mostly ice fishers, an account of the improved mode 

 of fishing now practised, will be sufficient for the 

 illustration of the method followed by the Dutch 

 and other nations at a more early period ; particular- 

 ly, as the way in which the whale is pursued and kill- 

 ed, is pretty nearly the same at this time as it was 

 a hundred years ago ; the improvements being con- 

 fined to an increase of application, perseverance and 

 activity, the effects of which, as I have before no- 

 ticed, are truly wonderful. 



Davis' Straits, or the sea lying between the West 

 side of Old Greenland and the East side of North 



