J8 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



(c) BOWHEAD-WHALE GROUNDS. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BOWHEAD WHALES. The bowhead or polar whale is the 

 species formerly taken in great numbers by the Dutch and English whalers at Spitzbergen, 

 Greenland, and Davis Strait. It is the whale captured by the American fleet in the Arctic Ocean, 

 and is the most valuable of the right or whalebone whales both for the quantity and for the quality 

 of its oil and for the length and the thickness of its baleen. In the English whale fishery it is 

 not distinguished from the right whale, but is not the same as the species commonly known to 

 American whalemen under that name, The American right whale lives in more temperate waters, 

 while the polar or bowhead whale inhabits only the icy regions of the northern seas. The home 

 of the bowhead is in most of the waters north of the sixtieth parallel of north latitude. It is found 

 in lower latitudes on the Asiatic than on the Greenland side of America, being taken in the 

 Okhotsk Sea as far south as the fifty-fourth parallel and in the Bering Sea as far south as the 

 fifty-fifth parallel, which is the southern limit of the winter ice in that sea. In the Greenland 

 Arctic the bowhead is not found south of Cape Farewell on the sixtieth parallel. The northern 

 limit of this whale is undefined. 



The capture of the bowhead whale began at Spitzbergen in the early part of the seventeenth 

 century ; it soon extended to the east coast of Greenland, and early in the eighteenth century 

 they were taken in Davis Strait and adjoining waters. It was not until the year 1848 that the 

 whalers pushed their way through Bering Strait and established the very profitable fishery tor this 

 species in the Pacific-Arctic. 



The principal grounds visited by the whaling vessels of the United States in search of the 

 bowhead are as follows : 



ATLANTIC-ARCTIC GROUNDS. Off Cape Farewell, at the southern end of Greenland, from 

 June to August; also in Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, especially in the vicinity of South- 

 hampton Island and near Cape Fullerton, that lies in about latitude 64 north, and longitude 86 

 west. The vessels are accustomed to work through the ice in Hudson Strait about the middle 

 of July, arriving in the bay about August 1, and if intending to return home the same year 

 they leave the bay by the 1st of September. Many of them go into winter quarters about Sep- 

 tember 15, and spend the winter in the ice, taking advantage of the early and the late appearance 

 of the whales, as also occasionally capturing seals or walrus in the winter months. 



In Davis Strait the vessels cruise near Northumberland Inlet in about latitude 65 north, 

 and" longitude 68 west. Cumberland Inlet has also been a favorite resort for whaling vessels of 

 the smaller class, and they frequently winter there. ~ Resolution Island, at the entrance to Cumber- 

 land Inlet, is a good ground for both bowhead and right whales during April and May. 



The whales taken in these bays and inlets in former years would average about 120 barrels 

 of oil each, the bull 100 barrels, and the cow 140 barrels ; but of late years they have been smaller 

 and scarcer. The yield of bone is usually about 1,300 pounds to 100 barrels of oil. 



American vessels at present cruise no farther north than the sixty-fifth parallel, though the 

 Scotch steam -whalers, that carry their blubber home to be boiled out, frequently take their whales 

 as far north as the seventy-fifth parallel. The American vessels formerly went as far as Pond's 

 Bay, in about latitude 73 north. 



A further discussion of the movements of the Scotch whalers is given below under the head 

 of Foreign Whale Fishery. 



In the seventeenth and eighteenth and first part of the nineteenth centuries there were very 

 profitable whaling grounds for the bowhead in the vicinity of Spitsbergen and off' the east coast 



