158 SrOKT IN NOKTH AMERICA. 



the night of the 22nd of March, 1848, and of the 

 profit which resulted therefrom/' 



The fact Avhich I have just narrated is, in more 

 than one respect, exceptional. At the time when I 

 publish these pages, Labrador is all but deserted by 

 the whale ; its giants are dead, or have quitted its 

 coasts for others less frequented by man. In the 

 month of July, however, they appear occasionally 

 and then they patrol the coasts and the most 

 secluded bays in "schools." 



In obedience to what law does the whale migrate? 

 After frequenting certain localities for centuries, he 

 suddenly disappears from them, and never returns. 

 Why is this ? How can we explain his" flight or 

 departure, the regularity or irregularity of his 

 nomade habits ? It has been proved by experience 

 that the whale can live in all latitudes. He is to 

 be met with even in tropical regions, the African or 

 Brazilian coasts, the Gulf of Panama, and even the 

 shores of Arabia Felix ; you find him under the 

 equinoctial line, for example, near Galapago Island, 

 and in the midst of polar ice, at 86 degrees of 

 north latitude, and also south of Cape Horn and 

 the Falkland Islands. Formerly, the whale abounded 

 in our own waters, and frequented the Bay of Biscay, 

 and even the Mediterranean, in schools. 



It is certain that the whale is a creature of 

 wandering habits. Those which belong to the 

 western hemisphere frequent the bays on the west 



