FAVOURITE HAUNTS OF "\VHAI,ES. 21J) 



other more obscure situations in a west or north-Avest 

 direction ; but occasionally they retreat no further 

 than the neighbouring drift ice, from whence they 

 sometimes return to the fields at regular intervals 

 of six, twelve, or twenty-four hours. It is a re- 

 mark of my Father's, which may be useful to the 

 fisher, that in penetrating from the sea towards the 

 edge of a field in search of whales, seldom will any 

 be found, unless some individujils are seen in the 

 passage through the intervening loose ice. 



Whales are rarely seen in abundance in the large 

 open spaces of water, which sometimes occur amidst 

 fields and floes, nor are they commonly seen in a 

 very open pack, unless it be in the immediate neigh-r 

 bourhood of the main western ice. They seem te 

 have a preference for close packs and patches of ice, 

 and for fields under certain circumstances ; for deep 

 bays or highis, and sometimes for clear water situa- 

 tions ; occasionally for detached streams of drift ice ; 

 and most generally, for extensive sheets of bay ice. 

 Bay ice is a very favourite retreat of the whales, so 

 long as it continues sufficiently tender, to be conve- 

 niently broken, for the purpose of respiration. In 

 such situations, whales may frequently be seen in 

 amazing numbers, elevating and breaking the ice 

 with their croiicns *, where thcv are observed to 



* The eminence on the head of the -vvlaale, in which |;he 

 hjow-holes are situated, is tlius called. 



