ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 15 



line, changing according to the seasons, which defines the southward Hmits of the polar 

 ice. And such, in fact, will be found to be the case. Even in Davis Strait and Baffin's 

 Bay the range of the whale is not limited by the same degree of latitude along the coast of 

 America as along the coast of Greenland. Thus, while the whale does not commonly appear 

 at the latter coast south of the factory of Sukkertoppen (65° 25'), it is a well-known fact that 

 on the opposite side of Davis Strait it is to be met with early in the spring, under a more 

 southern degree of latitude, along the northern part of the coast of Labrador, and near the outlet 

 of Hudson's Strait (61° — 62°), where the English, during the prosperous state of the whale- 

 fishery, carried on the south-west fishing, so well known for its dangers and hardships, especially 

 in the sea situated eastward of Resolution Island. Not only does the whale advance a little 

 further south along this side of Davis Strait, but it seems also to remain at this station 

 for some time after it has disappeared from the southernmost stations along the Greenland coast ; 

 for the whalers, while the south-west fishing was carried on, used to be at the fishing-places, 

 near Resolution Island, by the beginning of April, and did not usually leave them until the first 

 or second week of June.^ Nay, we are told by Scoresby that on this station^ whales have been 

 caught even so late as in July ; and it was on the 28th of June, at about an equal distance from 

 Resolution Island and Cape Walsingham, that Parry discovered the first Greenland whale which 

 he met with on his first voyage in 1819.^ But Scoresby particularly points out the fact that it 

 was only where the ice was still found that he had met with whales ; and Parry, too, met the 

 whale just mentioned while his ship was struggling with large floes of ice filhng the middle of 

 Davis Strait. Thus, in these cases also the whale proves true to its natural habit of remaining 

 among the floes and near the sohd ice ; and the difference of its southward migration along the 

 opposite shores of Davis Strait may be explained by the fact that the greater part of the west- 

 ice, or the enormous masses of drifting ice which are carried from the northern and north-western 

 parts of Baffin's Bay down Davis Strait, and which, as we have seen, are closely followed by 

 the whale, when they arrive at the coast of Greenland, not only keep closest to the western side 

 of the strait, but are also driven considerably further southwards along this coast than on the 

 opposite side. 



Nor does the period of the whale's stay along both sides of the strait agree more exactly 

 in the northern than in the southern part of the strait. Thus, Parry, in his account of his first 

 voyage, tells us that, on returning home in the beginning of September, he met with some 

 whalers fishing at about 71°, and, more particularly, that on the 5th of September, in the outlet 

 of the River Clyde (70° 30'), he found more than a dozen large whales, and a whaler from Hull, 

 the Priendship, having a fish at its side.* Again, on the 9th of September, he saw several 

 young whales about latitude 69° 24' ;^ and while the whale-fishery was prosperous in the north 

 part of Baffin's Bay English whalers used always on their return from Barrow Straits and 

 Lancaster Sound to seek the whales along the west coast of Baffin's Bay, if they had not got a 

 full cargo under more northerly degrees of latitude. Ponds Bay (c. 73°), Agnes' Monument 



^ Parry, W. E., ' Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-west Passage,' &c., London, 

 1821, 4to, p. 303. Scoresby, W., 'An Account of the Arctic Regions,' ii, 387. 

 - ' An Account,' &c., ii, 388. 

 ^ ' Journal of a Voyage,' &c., p. 9. 

 * Loc. cit., pp. 274 — 276. = Loc. cit., p. 290. 



