257 



John Ross' voyage and in still higher degree W. E. Parry's 

 in 1819, during which Lancaster Sound was navigated, led to 

 the English and Scottish whalers pushing further north than 

 they previously had done. Baffin's voyage in 1616 had been 

 the precursor of the whale-fishing in the Davis Strait, which 

 was begun already in 1619 by the Dutch, followed by the 

 English a few years later; but for 200 years the whalers had 

 kept to the southern parts of the Greenland coast. 



After Ross and Parry better knowledge was obtained of 

 the movements of the whale in these waters , and the whalers 

 were not long in making use of this knowledge. In March the 

 large whales, with which we are here concerned, are met with 

 off the ice-edge at Cumberland Sound and Frobisher Bay. In 

 the beginning of May they go over to the Greenland coast, 

 where they are found in June south of Disko. From here they 

 return towards the north along the ice-edge in Melville Bay 

 and into the so-called "North Water" of the whalers, south of 

 Smith Sound between Greenland in the east and Ellesmere 

 Land in the west. Late in July and in the beginning of August 

 some are met with in Jones Sound and in Lancaster Sound, 

 but the main portion are found off the mouth of Ponds Inlet, 

 where the whale-fishing takes place. In September and October 

 the whales turn to the south between the coast of Baffins 

 Land and the western edge of the "middle pack" ^ 



The movements of the whalers correspond with the mi- 

 grations of the whale. They arrive at the North Water late in 

 June or in the beginning of July, and often come into connec- 

 tion , as a rule off Cape York, with the Polar Eskimos, who 

 come out to the ships on the coastal ice which is still firm at 

 this time of year. During the past century the whalers have 

 thus traded occasionally with the Polar Eskimos, who in return 

 for their fox and bear skins received wood and iron implements. 



A. p. Low : Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Hudson 

 Bay and the arctic islands, 1 90S— 04. Ottawa 1906. 



