CONSEQUENT SHALLOWING OF THE SEA. 203 



nearly the same rate as I arrived at by tlie 

 other example. 



The enormous numbers of whales which, in 

 the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth 

 centuries, frequented first the bays, next the 

 coasts, and lastly the banks lying outside the 

 coasts of Spitzbergen, have now entirely de- 

 serted these waters altogether. Nobody ever 

 thinks of going to the neighbourhood of 

 Spitzbergen now to catch whales. During the 

 whole summer we only saw three individuals 

 of the Mysticetus. McCulloch and other 

 commercial writers attribute this migration of 

 the whales to the persecution they underwent, 

 saying, that they were all killed or frightened 

 away ; but, although their disappearance is un- 

 doubtedly partially attributable to that cause, 

 I believe the principal reason to be that the 

 seas around Spitzbergen have become too shal- 

 low for them; this is the general belief of 

 the sealers frequenting the coast, only they 

 generally put the cart before the horse, by 

 saying that " the sea is going back." 



I have heard the same remark made by the 

 sailors and fishermen on the west coast of 

 Norway, where Sir Charles Lyell ( " Principles 

 of Geology," p. 506) has shown to demonstra- 



