HABITS OF THE WHALE. 179 



So much for theory. Now for facts that have been 

 observed, and that tend, more or less, to corrobo- 

 rate this proposition of an open polar sea. The 

 habits of the whale have gone far to prove it. The 

 log-books of whalers have for many years been 

 carefully examined and compared by scientific men. 

 These investigations have led to the discovery 

 " that the tropical regions of the ocean are to the 

 e right ' whale as a sea of fire, through which he 

 cannot pass, and into which he never enters." It 

 has also been ascertained that the same kind of 

 whale which is found off the shores of Greenland, 

 in Baffin's Bay, &c., is found in the North Pacific, 

 and about Behring's Straits; and that the "right" 

 whale of the southern hemisphere is a different 

 animal from that of the northern. How, then, 

 came the Greenland whales to pass from the Green- 

 land seas to the Pacific ? Not by the Capes Horn 

 or Good Hope ; the " sea of fire " precluded that. 

 Clearly there was ground here for concluding that 

 they did so through the (supposed) open sea lying 

 beyond, or rather within, the frozen ocean. 



It is true the objection might be made, that 

 the same kind of whale which exists in the North 

 Pacific exists also in the North Atlantic, although 

 they never cross over to see each other. But an- 

 other discovery has met this objection. 



It is the custom among whalers to have their 

 harpoons marked with date and name of ship, and 

 Dr. Scoresby, in his work on arctic voyages men- 



