(12 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



the whaler is continually obliged to look out for more productive 

 seas, it is not because the whale has migrated, but because he 

 has been nearly extirpated in one place and left unmolested in 

 another. 



The Greenland whale fishery was for more than a hundred 

 years confined to the seas between Spitzbergen and Greenland ;. 

 the entrance and east shore of Davis' Straits not being frequented 

 before the beginning of the last century. Since then the ex- 

 peditions of Koss and Parry have made the whalers acquainted 

 with a number of admirable stations On the farther side of Davis' 

 Straits and in the higher latitudes of Baffin's Bay. The vessels 

 destined for that quarter sail usually in March, though some 

 delay their departure till the middle or even the end of April. 

 They proceed first to the northern parts of the coast of Labrador, 

 or to the mouth of Cumberland Strait, carrying on what is 

 called the south-west fishery. After remaining there till about 

 the beginning of May, they cross to the eastern shore of the 

 strait and fish upwards along the coast, particularly in South- 

 east Bay, North-east Bay, Kingston Bay, or Horn Sound. 



About the month of July they usually cross Baffin's Bay to 

 Lancaster Sound, which they sometimes enter, and occasionally 

 even ascend Barrow's Strait twenty or thirty miles. In re 

 turning, they fish down the western shore, where their favourite 

 stations are Pond's Bay, Agnes' Monument, Home Bay, and 

 Cape Searle, and sometimes persevere till late in October. The 

 casualties are generally very great, the middle of Baffin's Bay 

 being filled with a compact and continuous barrier, through 

 which, till a very advanced period of the season, it is impossible 

 for the navigator to penetrate. Between this central body and 

 that attached to the land, there intervenes a narrow and pre- 

 carious passage, where many a vessel has been crushed or pressed 

 out of the water and laid upon the ice. In 1819 ten ships were 

 lost out of sixty-three, and in 1821 eleven out of seventy-nine. 

 Fortunately the loss of lives is seldom to be deplored, as the 

 weather is generally calm and the crew has time enough to 

 escape in another vessel. 



Whale fishing is not only a very dangerous and laborious 

 pursuit, it is also extremely precarious and uncertain in its 

 results. Sometimes a complete cargo of oil and whalebone is 

 captured in a short time, but it also happens that after a long- 



