266 HISTORY AND DETAILS OF WHALING. 



zero. Passing this ice-bound region by traveling north, he 

 stood on the shores of an iceless sea, extending in an unbroken 

 sheet of water as far as the eye could reach towards the pole. 

 Its waves were dashing on the beach with the swell of a bound- 

 less ocean. The tides ebbed and flowed in it, and it is appre- 

 hended that the tidal wave from the Atlantic can no more 

 pass under this icy barrier to be propagated in seas beyond, 

 than the vibrations of a musical string can pass with its notes 

 a fret upon which the musician has placed his finger. . . . 

 These tides, therefore, must have been born in that cold sea, 

 having their cradle about the north pole. If these statements 

 and deductions be correct, then we infer that most, if not all, 

 the unexplored regions about the pole are covered with deep 

 water ; for, were this unexpected area mostly land or shallow 

 water, it could not give birth to regular tides. Indeed, the 

 existence of these tides, with the immense flow and drift which 

 annually take place from the polar seas into the Atlantic, sug- 

 gests many conjectures concerning the condition of the unex- 

 plored regions. 



Whalemen have always been puzzled as to the place of breed- 

 ing for the right whale. It is a cold water animal ; and, fol- 

 lowing up this train of thought, the question is pi*ompted, Is 

 the nursery for the great whale in this polar sea, which has 

 been so set about and hemmed in with a hedge of ice that man 

 may not trespass there ? This providential economy is still 

 further suggestive, prompting us to ask, Whence comes the 

 food for the young whales there ? Do the teeming waters of 

 the Gulf Stream convey it there also, and in channels so far 

 down in the depths of the sea that no enemy may waylay and 

 spoil it on the long journey ? These facts therefore lead us to 

 the opinion that the polar sea may be an exhaustless resource 

 for the supply of whales for other seas, as well as a common 

 rendezvous for them during the intense cold of arctic winters. 

 Dr. Kane found the temperature of this polar sea only 36° ! 



Vessels that are fitted out for the purpose of whaling, 



