WHALING 253 



graphical description is necessary to a proper understanding of 

 the movements and habits of these animals. 



Davis strait and Baffin bay separate Greenland from the 

 great Arctic islands of Baffin, Bylot, North Devon and Elles- 

 mere. Their combined length stretches from the mouth of 

 Hudson strait to the entrance of Smith sound, or from latitude 

 60 N". to latitude 78 K, a distance of 1,200 miles. In shape 

 they may be compared to a sack loosely drawn in about a third 

 of the distance from its mouth, which opens widely to the south- 

 ward, where it has a breadth of nearly 500 miles between the 

 southern part of Greenland and the island of Resolution on the 

 north side of Hudson strait. Both shores then gradually ap- 

 proach, until in the neighbourhood of latitude 66 N". the 

 distance across is 200 miles. To the northward of this the 

 Greenland coast runs nearly due north, while the western coast 

 trends towards the northwest, and in consequence when latitude 

 75 N. is reached Baffin bay is nearly 400 miles wide from the 

 Greenland coast to the shores of North Devon. Beyond this the 

 Greenland coast sweeps to the westward, around Melville bay, 

 and after Cape York is passed turns northwest until Cape 

 Alexander, at the entrance to Smith sound, is reached. The 

 western coast, in the meanwhile, first runs north and then north- 

 east to Cape Isabella, which is only twenty-five miles distant 

 from Cape Alexander on the Greenland coast. 



Like all the great northern bays, Baffin bay has a current 

 flowing northward along the eastern or Greenland coast, and a 

 cold Arctic current setting southward along the western shores. 

 These currents have a considerable influence upon the climate 

 of the adjoining land, and the mean annual temperature at 

 points of corresponding latitude is several degrees higher on 

 the Greenland side. This difference of climate is marked along 

 the middle and northern coasts, that of Greenland being prac- 

 tically free from ice and snow, except where glaciers from the 



