THE BOWHEAD, OB GBEAT POLAB WHALE. 59 



formed over water between the floes. They do this by coming up under and strik- 

 ing it with the arched portion of their heads. Hence tliey have been called "ice- 

 breakers." In point of color, nearly all are found with more or less white on the 

 under side, especially about the throat and fins. 



Whalers bound to the Arctic are generally at the "edge of the ice," which is 

 met with near lat. 60°, about the 1st of May. They then work their way north- 

 ward as fast as the broken floes will permit, keeping as near shore as practicable, 

 in order to be on the best "whale -ground," and to avoid the ice. Many whales were 

 formerly taken oW Karaginski Island, lat. 59°, on the coast of Kamschatka. Beh- 

 ring Strait is sufliciently clear of ice from the 1st to the 20th of July, for ships to 

 navigate with comparative safety. A large fleet collect, and grope their way through 

 ice and fog into the Arctic (as termed), and frecjuently reach the high latitude of 

 72° north. Occasionally an open season occurs, when whalemen hazard their ships 

 around Point Barrow. Captain Roys entered the ocean in the middle of July, and 

 left on the 28th of August, but at the present time ships remain until October. 



The principal herding -places of the Bowheads in tlie Okhotsk were at the ex- 

 tremities of this great sheet of water, the most northern being the North -east Gulf 

 (Gulf of Ghijigha), the most southern, Tchantar Bay. The whales did not make 

 their appearance in North-east Gulf so soon as in the bay. Whalers endeavored, 

 as soon as possible, to get to the head of Tchantar Bay, where they found the 

 objects of pursuit in the intermediate water, between the ice and the shore, long 

 before the main body of the congealed mass was broken up, and before the 

 ships could get between the ice and the shore, even at high tide — the boats being 

 sent forward weeks previous to the ships. Soon after the ships' arrival, the whales 

 avoided their pursuers by going under the main body of ice, situated in the middle 

 of the bay, where they found breathing -holes among the floes. The boats cruised 

 about the edge of this barrier, watching for them to emerge from their covert, 

 which occasionally they did, when chase was instantly given. Frequently, in sailing 

 along this ice-field, you could hear distinctly the sound of whales blowing among 

 it, when no water was visible at the point whence the sound came. The first of 

 the season, before the ice broke up and disappeared, when there were "no whales 

 about," the question was frequently asked, "Where are the whales?" and as often 

 answered, "They are in the ice;" and, "When do you think they will come out?" 

 was answered by, "When the ice leaves." It has been established, beyond question, 

 that this species pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or rather, if we may be al- 

 lowed the expression, from the Atlantic Arctic to the Pacific Arctic, by the north ; 

 and, too, it is equally certain that numerous air-holes always exist in the ice that 



