THE DUTCH WHALERS PREDOMINANT 121 



in the ice-bearing southerly current (Greenland 

 current). 



The ice between Spitsbergen and Greenland was 

 called West-ice, and the whales in it West-ice 

 Whales. After the slaughter at Smeerenburg these 

 West-ice Whales became very cunning and shy. 

 The other whales, though not differing in appearance, 

 were more abundant in unusual years when the ice 

 east of Spitsbergen and Nova Zembla drifted in 

 greater quantity and with smaller and flatter floes 

 much lower down than in ordinary years. Such 

 an unusual year in which there was great abundance 

 of this peculiar whale was called a south-ice year, 

 and the whale a South-ice Whale. This South-ice 

 Whale was not so shy and cunning as the West- 

 ice Whale, and was even, after a hundred 

 years' slaughter, still more easy to catch than the 

 other. 



From this it would appear that south-ice years 

 have been exceptional, otherwise this whale would 

 have changed its habits, like the West-ice Whale. 



The whaling ground to the eastward, north of 

 Spitsbergen, was called " Waigat " (blow-hole) 

 because the southerly wind blows strongly through 

 it. The Waygat or Waigat was the north end of 

 Hinlopen Strait. 



De Straet van Hinlopen was first marked on 

 Blaeus map (1662); at the same time Colom, Valk 

 and Schenk call it Waygat. The two names were 

 used interchangeably from that time down to 

 Scoresby's day (1820). Martens writes in 1671, 



