THE BOWHEAD, OB GBEAT POLAB WHALE. 59 
formed over water between the floes. They do this by coming up under and strik- 
ing it with the arched portion of their heads. Hence they have been called "ice- 
breakers." In point of color, nearly all are found with more or less white on the 
under side, especially about the throat and fins. 
Whalers bound to the Arctic are generally at the "edge of the ice," which is 
met with near lat. 60°, about the 1st of May. They then work their way north- 
ward as fast as the broken floes will permit, keeping as near shore as practicable, 
in order to be on the best "whale -ground," and to avoid the ice. Many whales were 
formerly taken off Karaginski Island, lat. 59°, on the coast of Kamschatka. Beh- 
ring Strait is sufficiently clear of ice from the 1st to the 20th of July, for ships to 
navigate with comparative safety. A large fleet collect, and grope their way through 
ice and fog into the Arctic (as termed), and frequently reach the high latitude of 
72° north. Occasionally an open season occurs, when whalemen hazard their ships 
around Point Barrow. Captain Roys entered the ocean in the middle of July, and 
left on the 28th of August, but at the present time ships remain until October. 
The principal herding -places of the Bowheads in the Okhotsk were at the ex- 
tremities of this great sheet of water, the most northern being the North-east Gulf 
(Gulf of Ghijigha), the most southern, Tchantar Bay. The whales did not make 
their appearance in North -east Gulf so soon as in the bay. Whalers endeavored, 
as soon as possible, to get to the head of Tchantar Bay, where they found the 
objects of pursuit in the intermediate water, between the ice and the shore, long 
before the main body of tha congealed mass was broken up, and before the 
ships could get between the ice and the shore, even at high tide — the boats being 
sent forward weeks previous to the ships. Soon after the ships' arrival, the whales 
avoided their pursuers by going under the main body of ice, situated in the middle 
of the bay, where they found breathing- holes among the floes. The boats cruised 
about the edge of this barrier, watching for them to emerge from their covert, 
which occasionally they did, when chase was instantly given. Frequently, in sailing 
along this ice-field, you could hear distinctly the sound of whales blowing among 
it, when no water was visible at the point whence the sound came. The first of 
the season, before the ice broke up and disappeared, when there were "no whales 
about," the question was frequently asked, "Where are the whales?" and as often 
answered, "They are in the ice;" and, "When do you think they will come out?" 
was answered by, "When the ice leaves." It has been established, beyond question, 
that this species pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or rather, if we may be al- 
lowed the expression, from the Atlantic Arctic to the Pacific Arctic, by the north ; 
and, too, it is equally certain that numerous air-holes always exist in the ice that 
