146 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE OPEN SEA IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 



How Whales struck on the east Side of the Continent have been taken on the west 

 Side, ^ 278. — Right Whales can not cross the Equator, 279. — How the Existence 

 of a northwest Passage was proved by the Whales, 280. — Other Evidence in Favor 

 of it, 281. — An under Current sets into the Arctic Ocean, 282. — Evidences of a 

 milder Climate near the Pole, 284. — The Water Sky of Lieutenant De liaven, 285. 

 — This open Sea not permanently in one Place, 286. 



278. It is the custom among whalers to have their harpoons 

 marked with date and the name of the ship ; and Dr. Scoresby, 

 in his work on Arctic voyages, mentions several mstances of 

 whales that have been taken near the Behring's Strait side with 

 harpoons in them bearing tlie stamp of ships that w^ere known to 

 cruise on the Baffin's Bay side of the American continent ; and as, 

 in one or two instances, a very short time had elapsed between 

 the date of capture in the Pacific and the date Vvhen the fish must 

 have been struck on the Atlantic sicle, it was argued therefore 

 that there was a northwest passage by which the whales passed 

 from one side to the other, since the stricken animal could not 

 have had the harpoon in him long enough to admit of a passage 

 around either Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. 



The whale-fishing is, among the industrial pursuits of the sea, 

 one of no little importance ; and when the system of investigation 

 out of which the "wind and current charts" have grown was 

 commenced, the haunts of this animal did not escape attention or 

 examination. The log-books of whalers were collected in great 

 numbers, and patiently examined, co-ordinated, and discussed, in 

 order to find out what parts of the ocean are frequented by this 

 kind of whale, what parts b}^ that, and what parts by neither. 

 (See Plate IX.) 



279. Log-books containing the records by different ships for 

 hundreds of thousands of days were examined, and the observa- 

 tions in them co-ordinated for this chart. And this investigation, 



