406 NATURAL SCIENCE [juue 



tific training, if not for the sole purpose of studying the habits and 

 economy of the whales, certainly with very excellent results in that 

 direction. Scoresby, of course, takes the leading place, but Dr 

 Eobert Brown's observations (before, referred to) are of great value, 

 and the routine of a modern whaling voyage has been admirably 

 narrated by Captain (now Admiral) A. H. Markham from his per- 

 sonal experiences on board the 'Arctic ' whaler in 1873.^ In addition 

 to these there are many references to the subject in the journals of 

 the voyages undertaken for Arctic discovery, and in the reports of 

 the whalers themselves, many of whom are men of great intelligence. 



It may be well first briefly to sketch in outline the course 

 pursued by the whales in their annual migrations, leaving the 

 details, more especially the autumn movements of the females and 

 young whales, for fuller consideration later on. To the westward, 

 the southern limit of the Right Whale's winter resort in the present 

 day appears to be about the 5 7th or 58th parallel of north latitude 

 off the Labrador coast. In April and May they are met with off 

 the entrance to Hudson Strait and Resolution Island ; the old 

 males enter Davis Strait, and as the ice retreats make their 

 appearance in the neighbourhood of Disco. Here they bear to the 

 west, and crossing Baffin Bay join the female and immature whales 

 which have arrived before them (coming north by a route through 

 the heavier ice nearer the western shore), and wait the breaking up 

 oi the ice in Lancaster Sound, which generally takes place in July.- 

 They then pass into the Sound, and disperse into Prince Regent's 

 Inlet and other ramifications of the deep channels intersecting the 

 Northern Archipelago, and spend the summer in these waters. 

 When the ice begins to form in autumn, and it becomes necessary 

 to beat a retreat, the whales commence their southward journey in 

 a leisurely manner ; and this also appears to be performed in two 

 sections, the old male whales returning along the west shore of the 

 bay and the females and young ones by a more circuitous route, 

 which I shall endeavour to trace in due course. These routes I have 

 laid down on the accompanying chart. 



Dr Robert Brown is of opinion that the Right Whales which 

 frequent Davis Strait in summer pass the winter and produce their 

 young all along the broken water off the coast of the southern por- 

 tion of that Strait, also in Hudson Strait and Labrador. The when 

 and the where of the reproduction of this species is a very interest- 

 ing question, and too large an one to enter upon here. It is certain, 



1 " A Whalinjr Cruise to Baffin Bay, &c., in 1873." London, 1874. The s.s. 'Arctic' 

 in which Captain Markham sailed was lost in Davis Strait the next season, and her suc- 

 cessor, a line vessel of 522 tons, was so severely nipped in Fox Channel in 1887 as to 

 render her abandonment in Cumberland Gulf necessary. 



2 These dates are only approximate ; so much depends upon season, prevailing winds, 

 -and the varying condition of the ice. 



