THE WHALE FISHERY. 203 



they accumulate iu greatest numbers iu the neighborhood of Pond's Bay, aud even up Eclipse 

 Souud, the continuation of the so-called Pond's Bay, which is in reality an extensive unexplored 

 sound opening away into the intricacies of the Arctic Aichipelago. The whales continue 'run- 

 ning' here until the end of June, and remain until about the end of August or the beginning of 

 September. The whalers think if they can reach Pond's Bay by the beginning of August they are 

 sure for a 'full' ship. The whales now commence going soulh, and the whalers continue to pursue 

 them on their austral migration, halting for that purpose in Home Bay, Scott's Inlet, Clyde River, 

 and the vicinity. As the season gets more tempestuous and the nights darker, most of them 

 towards the end of September, to avoid the icebergs darfiittg about in this region at that time of 

 the year, anchor in a snug cove, or cul de sac, lying oft' an extensive unexplored sound, not laid 

 down on any map, in the vicinity of Cape Hooper ; others go into a place known by the euphonious 

 name of 'Hangman's Cove';* whilst others go south to Kemisoak (Hogarth's Sound of Penny), 

 Northumberland Inlet, or other places in the vicinity of Cumberland Sound and the Meta Incog- 

 nita of Frobisher localities intimately known to many of these hardy seamen, but by name only 

 to geographers. Whilst the good ship lies secure in these itusurveyed and unauthorized harbors 

 (each master mariner according to bis predilection), the boats go outside to watch for whales. If 

 they succeed in capturing one, frequently, if possible, the vessel goes out and assists in securing 

 it. Though they are supposed to return to the ship every night, yet at this time the men are often 

 subjected to great hardship and danger. This is known as the 'autumn' or 'fall fishing,' and 

 this method of pursuing it as ' rock-nosing.' 



***## 

 " Where the whale goes in the winter is still unknown. It is said that it leaves Davis Strait 

 about the month of November, and produces young in the Saint Lawrence River, between Quebec 

 and Camaroa, returning again in the spring to Davis Strait. At all events early iu the year they 

 are found on the coast of Labrador, where the English whalers occasionally attack them ; but the 

 ships arrive generally too late, and the weather at that, season is too tempestuous to render the 

 ' southwest fishing' very attractive. Later in the year the ships enter Cumberland Sound in great 

 numbers ; and many of them (especially American -and Peterhead vessels) now make a regular 

 practice of wintering there in order to attack the whales in early spring. It is said that early in 

 September they enter Cumberland (Hogarth's) Sound in great numbers and remain until it is com- 

 pletely frozen up, which, according to Eskimo account, is not until the month of January. It is 

 also affirmed by the natives that when they undertake long journeys over the ice iu spring, when 

 hunting for young seals, they see whales iu great numbers at the edge of the ice-floe. They enter 

 the sound again iu the spring and remain until the heat of the summer has entirely melted off the 

 laud-floes in these comparatively southern latitudes. It thus appears that they winter (and produce 

 their young) all along the broken water off the coast of the southern portions of Davis Strait, 

 Hudson Strait, and Labrador. The ice remaining longer on the western than on the eastern 

 shore of Davis Strait, aud thus impeding their northern progress, they cross to the Greenland coast ; 

 but as at that season there is little laud-ice south of 65 degrees, they are rarely found south of that 

 latitude. They then remain here until the land-floes have broken up, when they cross to the western 

 shores of the strait, where we find them in July. I am strongly of belief that the whales of the 

 Spitsbergen Sea never, as a body, visit Davis Strait, but winter somewhere in the open water at 

 the southern edge of the northern ice-fields. The whales are being gradually driven farther north 

 and are now rarely found, even by their traces, so far south as the Island of Jan-May en (71 degrees 

 north latitude), round which they were so numerous in the palmy days of the Dutch whaling trade. 



* From an Eskimo being found here hung by ;m nlluiiak over a cliff. 



