218 WHALE-FISHERY. 



deavour to make their escape into the eastern sea* 

 and resume the fisliery again in a higher latitude. 



There have been occasions in which whales liave 

 been seen and killed in the latitude of 71 ' or TQ'', 

 but the circumstances were peculiar, and the in- 

 stances rare. 



Having now mentioned, generally, the principal 

 places resorted to by the whales in the Spitzbergen 

 seas, it will possibly be interesting to such as are in 

 any way concerned in the fishery, to notice more par- 

 ticularly their favourite haunts, under particular 

 circumstances. 



Experience proves, that the whale has its fa- 

 vourite places of resort, depending on a sufliciency 

 of food, particular circumstances of weather, and 

 particular positions and qualities of the ice. Thus, 

 though many whales may have been seen in open 

 water, when the weather was fine, after the oc- 

 currence of a storm, perhaps not one is to be 

 seen. And, though fields are sometimes the re- 

 sort of hundreds of whales, yet, whenever the 

 loose ice around separates entirely away, the 

 whales quit them also. Hence fields seldom af- 

 ford whales in much abundance, excepting at the 

 time when they first " break out," and become ac- 

 cessible ; that is, immediately after a vacancy is 

 made on some side by the separation of adjoining 

 fields, floes or drift ice. Whales, on leaving fields 

 which have become exposed, frequently retire t« 



