xxiv. NATURAL HISTORY. 



the track of the discoverers, were amply rewarded for the first few years by most 

 abundant success ; since the produce that in any one year has been brought to 

 England from those newly-discovered portions of the Arctic Seas, is more than 

 sufficient to cover the whole expenses of all the Expeditions of Discovery that have 

 been sent, during the last twenty years, to those regions : and yet people, not aware of 

 this circumstance, are perpetually asking what benefit can result to this country from 

 such undertakings ! 



The Whale, however, still continues to retire from the persecutions of man ; and the 

 numbers of its young which are annually destroyed without remorse by the avaricious 

 but imprudent fishermen, must soon exhaust the fishery ; and search must then be 

 made far to the westward of Baffin's Bay, and to the eastward of Spitzbergen, for 

 their places of retreat. 



We found them in considerable numbers as low as the latitude of 71° N, along 

 the western shore of Prince Regent's Inlet ; and the whole line of coast is crowded 

 with the remains of Esquimaux winter huts, which had been chiefly constructed of 

 the crown bones of the young Whale. 



The natives of the Isthmus of Boothia say, that it is but rarely seen either on the 

 east or west side of the Isthmus ; and they, not being sufficiently well prepared, or in 

 sufficient numbers, never venture to attack it. Only two were seen by us during the 

 three years we were frozen up in that neighbourhood. 



A most interesting account of the Whale fishery is given by Captain Scoresby, 

 loc. cit., where its importance to Great Britain, as a nursery for seamen, employment 

 of capital, and as a source of national wealth, is made sufficiently manifest. 



