THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY. 103 



1 Polynia ' was crushed in the ice. Only three vessels — the 

 'Eclipse,' 'Hope,' and 'Active' — left Peterhead, the sole repre- 

 sentatives of a fleet of twenty-eight vessels which sailed from 

 that port in the year 1859. 



The chief characteristics of the Davis Straits voyage appear 

 to have been a very stormy passage out, and the enormous quantity 

 of ice on the West Coast of Davis Strait. The passage through 

 Melville Bay was open, but the captain of the ' Esquimaux ' 

 states that, in his experience of twenty-three years, he had never 

 come across so much ice in one season. The ' Chieftain ' was 

 seriously damaged on her voyage out, and was afterwards beset in 

 Lancaster Sound, and, after seeing only two or three Whales, 

 arrived home " clean." A worse fate befel the ' Polynia.' On the 

 10th of July, in the neighbourhood of Admiralty Inlet, working 

 through the ice which a strong N.E. wind was drifting in against 

 the land, just, as her Captain believed, as she was passing the last 

 jam of ice which shut out his vessel from the open water beyond, 

 she was caught by the stern between two floes, and crushed so 

 badly as to render it impossible to save her. The crew, thirty- 

 seven in number, took to the ice, and, about six o'clock on the 

 morning of the 11th, the 'Polynia,' after thirty summers spent 

 in the Polar Seas, went to her long resting-place under the ice of 

 Lancaster Sound. On the same afternoon, to the great joy of the 

 crew, who were on the broken ice twelve miles from the shore, 

 the ' Maud ' hove in sight, but was unable to reach them. Early 

 on the morning of the 12th the 'Aurora,' a much more powerful 

 vessel, came to their assistance, and speedily forced her way 

 through the ice to their rescue. The crew was afterwards 

 divided between the 'Maud,' 'Aurora,' and the 'Esquimaux,' and 

 all eventually reached their homes in safety. 



Only six Whales were captured in the Straits Fishery, two of 

 the vessels returning " clean.'' Other Whales were seen, but not 

 captured, the ' Maud ' unfortunately losing two, the harpoons 

 drawing after, twenty-one lines being carried out in one case, and 

 thirty lines* in the other ! A large number of Bears were killed 

 in the Straits, and 569 White Whales obtained in Lancaster 



* A whale-line is 120 fathoms long : this fish therefore took away 4 miles 

 160 yards of line, the great weight of which alone would draw the harpoon 

 unless very firmly fixed. 



