160 SPORT IN NOETH AMERICA. 



Fernandez Lopez de Gomara) had the honour of first 

 discovering the West India Islands. 



The whale, tracked and hunted upon ever}^ sea, 

 has almost entirely abandoned (in our hemisphere 

 especially) his old localities. His movements have 

 lost their former regularity; his instinct (more 

 astute than that of other migratory fishes) has put 

 him on his guard against the dangers which menace 

 him periodically ia certain places. The giant of the 

 sea flies before man the persecutor, and seeks a 

 shelter in the icy regions of the north and south, 

 until, pursued even to those regions^ he re-appears 

 again in less inclement seas. This is why the loca- 

 lities of the fisheries change so often, and sometimes 

 so rapidly. 



The Dutch organised a Avhale-fishery on a large 

 scale, and built permanent establishments at Spitz- 

 bergen. The creeks and harbours of a coast which 

 is now almost unknown were then annually ploughed 

 by from three to four hundred whale-ships. Groen- 

 haven bay, the great canal of Iszond, the coasts of 

 the island of Voorland and Smeeremberg roads, 

 were then the centre of an extraordinary amount of 

 business during the fishing season. The village of 

 Smeerenberg (which derived its name from smeeren, 

 to melt) was, although within a few degrees of the 

 Arctic Circle, well supplied with luxuries of all kinds 

 from Amsterdam. The departure of the whale, 

 however, and the maritime incursions of Jean Bart 



