THE WHALE FISHERY. 21 



latter part of October, though vessels sometimes continue cruising throughout November at great 

 risk from the ice, and they have occasionally wintered in the ice in order to take advantage of the 

 late aud early seasons. 



Ships that cruise in the Arctic Ocean generally arrive in the Kamchatka and the Anadyr 

 Seas about the beginning of May, and continue cruising south of Bering Strait until the ice per- 

 mits them to pass through the Strait into the Arctic, which is usually about the first of June. 

 Before entering the Strait a considerable number of whales are sometimes taken in the bays and 

 gulfs along the Siberian coast and about St. Lawrence Island. Captain Barnes, in the bark Sea 

 Breeze, of New Bedford, in the season of 1877, passed the Aleutian chain on May 4, and three 

 days after came up to the ice in latitude 56 30' north. Until May 23 the ice was skirted toward 

 the. westward, and frequent ineffectual attempts were made to penetrate it. Land was sighted on 

 the 24th, 250 miles west-southwest from Cape Navarin, and on that day the ice was entered. On 

 June 18, whales were seen off Cape Chaplin. The whales usually pass through the Strait about 

 th<! beginning of June, and are followed up by the vessels that cruise along the western side of the 

 Arctic during the first part of the season, while waiting for the ice to open so that they may pass 

 to the eastward to Point Barrow. This time of waiting usually lasts from the middle of June till 

 the 1st of August, and is called the "summer season" or "between seasons.' 7 It is spent princi- 

 pally in capturing walrus which herd on the ice floes in immense numbers in the vicinity of Cape 

 Serdze-Kamen. During specially favorable " summer seasons," as that of 1880, many whales are 

 taken, aud little time is spent in walrusing, but these weeks are usually quiet ones with the fleet, 

 the killing of walrus being considered a pastime by the whalemen. 



As soon as the ice will permit, at the beginning of August, the fleet follows up through the 

 openings, capturing whales wherever they can be found. Most of the vessels reach Point Barrow 

 by the middle of August, aud begin to push farther to the eastward, creeping along the edge of 

 the ice or entering the openings in search of their prey. Some of the vessels in the season of 1877 

 went as far east as Return Reef, and early in September they had all returned to Point Barrow. 

 From this time until the ice begins to close up the fleet cruises back and forth westward of Point 

 Barrow, reaching some seasons as high as the seventy-second parallel, which is about the most 

 northern cruising ground in the Arctic. The period from the middle of August until about October 

 1, when the fleet leaves the ocean, is the real Arctic season, and an exciting one it is. 



Ships quite often anchor along the shores in thick weather, as also to " cut in " the whales, or 

 to " try out" the oil. Most of the ships leave the sea about the 1st of October, though sometimes 

 they stay later, at the risk of being caught in the new ice. " The general breaking up of the ice in 

 this region," says Captain Hooper, "commences in May or June in the vicinity of Bering Strait, 

 and continues until the first part of September, after which time new ice begins to form, although 

 the sea is.not entirely closed for some weeks later. The heavy gales keep the larger floes in motion, 

 and prevent them from uniting in one mass. After October 1 the water is so chilled that a general 

 closing up of the sea is likely to occur at any time. Formerly the whale-ships did not remain in 

 the Arctic later than the middle of September, but as whales grew scarce they prolonged their 

 stay each year, until last year (1879) they did not leave until after the middle of October. This 

 resulted in the loss of three vessels and two entire crews ; a fourth vessel, the bark Helen Mar, 

 Captain Bauldry, barely escaped, bringing with her the crew of the bark Mercury, one of the lost 

 vessels. Her escape was effected by carrying all sail with a strong, fair wind, and forcing a passage 

 through the new ice, which was so thick that at times her headway was entirely lost until a strong 

 puff of wind started her again. In this way the vessel worked on a few miles each day, reaching 

 Bering Strait about the 1st of November."* 



" Corwin's Cruise, 1880. 



