202 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE F1SIIK1MES. 



Dundee trliale and setiljinher'u-t, 1870 to !>.<]. 



* 81 black, 935 white. 



t 112 black, COO white. 



The distribution of the bow-bead whale in these regions and the movements of the Scotch 

 whalers is discussed as follows by Mr. R. Brown : 



" Whales appear on tbe coast of Danish Greenland early in May, but are not nearly so plentiful 

 as formerly, when the Davis Strait whaler generally pursued his business on this portion of the 

 coast; but they are now so few that they are generally gone north before the arrival of those ships 

 which have first proceeded to the Spitzbergen sealing. It is rarely found on the Greenland coast 

 south of 05 or north of 73; indeed I have only heard of one instance in which it has been seen 

 as far north as the Duck Island near the entrance of Melville Bay, and even for a considerable 

 distance south of that it can only be looked upon ass an occasional straggler. However, after cross- 

 ing to the western shores of Davis Strait, it occasionally wanders as far north as the upper reaches 

 of Baffin's Bay. The great body, however, leave the coast of Greenland in June, crossing by the 

 ' middle ice,' in the latitude of Svarte Hnk (Black Hook)', in about latitude 71 30' N. The whaler 

 presses with all speed north through Melville Bay to the upper waters of Baffin's Bay, and across 

 to the vicinity of Lancaster Sound. If there is land ice in Baffin's Bay at the time they arrive 

 (about the end of July), there are generally some whales up-that sound and Barrow's Inlet; but 



