544 MR. R. BROWN ON THE CETACEANS [NoV. 12, 



sued his business on this portion of the coast ; but they are now so 

 few that they have 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 (J5°, or north of 7-^° ; 

 indeed I have only heard of one instance in which it has been seen 

 as far north as the Duck Islands near the entrance of Melville Bay, 

 and even for a considerable distance south of that it can only be 

 looked upon as an occasional straggler. However, after crossing to 

 the western shores of Davis Strait, it occasionally wanders as far 

 north as the upper reaches of Baffin's Bay. The great body, how- 

 ever, leave the coast of Greenland in June, crossing by the " middle 

 ice," in the latitude of Svarte Huk (Black Hook), in about lat. 

 71° 30' N. The whaler presses with all speed north through Mel- 

 ville 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 they accu- 

 mulate in greatest numbers in the neighbourhood of Pond's Bay, 

 and even up Eclipse Sound, 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 archipelago. The Whales 

 continue " running" here until the end of June, and remain until 

 about the end of August or beginning of September. The whalers 

 think that if they can reach Pond's Bay by the beginning of August 

 they are sure of a "full" ship. The Whales now commence going 

 south, and the whalers continue to pursue them on their austral mi- 

 gration, halting for that purpose in Home Bay, Scott's Inlet, Clyde 

 lliver, &c. As the season gets more tempestuous and the nights dark, 

 most of them towards the end of September, to avoid the icebergs 

 dashing about in this region at that time of the year, anchor in a snug 

 cove, or cul de sac, lying off 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 Incognita of Frobisher, — localities intimately 

 known to many of these hardy seamen, but by name only to geo- 

 graphers. Whilst the good ship lies secure in these unsurveyed and 

 unauthorized harbours (each master mariner according to his predi- 

 lection), 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." 



M. Guerin, the surgeon of a whaler, has described f what he con- 

 siders a marked variety of the Right Whale under the name of the 

 " Rock-nosed Whale." The characters which he gives (such as the 

 head being considerably more than one-third the size of the animal, 



* From an Eskimo being found here hung bv an allunaJc over a clifF. 

 t Edinb. New Phil. Journ. 1845, p. 267. 



