336 WIIALE-riSHERY. 



tremely partial : For, whenever a ship happened to 

 cruise in a direction where no fish were found, much 

 time was expended before she coukl cither retum, 

 or visit some other remote situation, considered as 

 a probable retreat of the whales ; and meanwhile, 

 perhaps, a successful fishery was made in the very 

 spot she had left. 



The only general indication, in the season of 

 1817, which could be of the least service to 

 the fisher, to assist liim in the choice of a situa- 

 tion, was the colour of the sea. In places where 

 the water was transparent and blue, or green- 

 ish blue, it was in vain to look for whales ; but, 

 in a certain streara of cloudy water of a deep 

 olive green colour, wliich extended, with some in- 

 terruptions, from the latitude of 80° N. in the pa- 

 rallel of 2° or 3" E. to the latitude of 74^ in the 

 parallel of 5"^ to 10"* W., all the whales which were 

 seen throughout the season, or at least nine- tenths of 

 them, occurred; and the chief part of those which were 

 caught, were found in the same stream of water. 

 This kind of sea- water, respecting which I have had 

 occasion to speak in the first volume of this work, oc- 

 curs to a remarkable extent in the Greenland seas. It 

 is the favourite resort of whales during the fishing 

 season ; evidently because it abounds with various 

 descriptions of actinia?, sepias, medusa?, and cancri, 

 w^hich constitute the chief, if not the sole nourish- 

 ment of the whale. Such whales as were seen in 

 the clear blue-coloured sea-water, were never ob- 



