74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Barents Seas, and afterwards to the west of Franz Josef Land, 
where Mr. Jackson confirms their report that very little difficulty 
was experienced from ice up to the 80th parallel; Mr. Arnold 
Pike and the captain of the ‘ Balena’ to the east of Spitzbergen 
and Wyche’s Land; and Colonel Feilden to the eastward of 
Novaya Zemyla and the Kara Sea;—all bear testimony to the 
remarkable absence of ice. The causes which contribute to 
bring about these extensive variations in the limits of what 
may be regarded as the polar ice fringe are too complicated 
for me to attempt any explanation here, even were I at all com- 
petent to do so (Capt. Gray offers some very pertinent suggestions 
in the paper before quoted), but, confining my remarks to the 
Greenland Seas, there can be no doubt the chief cause of the 
recent packing of the ice on the east coast of Greenland was the 
long prevalence of EK. and N.E. gales. The ‘ Balena’ reports 
that she reached the N.E. fishing grounds about the end of April, 
and experienced there the worst weather on record. 
On May Ist, following a few days of mild foggy weather, 
there came a succession of N.H. gales, which lasted till the 
middle of the month, and forced the vessels to seek partial 
shelter in the pack-ice. This “ blizzard” was followed by strong 
easterly winds; gale succeeded gale until June 20th, and the 
severity of the weather is described as exceeding anything within 
the memory of the oldest man in the fleet. The result of this 
state of things was that the ice became “‘ hammered” against the 
east coast of Greenland, and was so compacted, that where in 
ordinary years a belt exists extending seaward from 150 to 200 
miles, with open floes such as the Whales love to frequent, in the 
past season it did not reach more than fifty miles from the shore, 
and was packed so tight as to be perfectly impenetrable. This 
condition of the ice was of course fatal to the fishery, as the 
vessels were unable to search for the Whales in their favourite 
feeding grounds; and it was not till May 29th that a fish was 
found. This the ‘ Balena’ was fortunate enough to capture, and 
the only other Whale seen in the Greenland Seas during the 
entire season was sighted about the middle of June, but could 
not be approached. 
There being no prospect of success in the Greenland waters, 
the fleet, consisting of the ‘ Active,’ the ‘ Balena,’ and the ‘ Diana,’ 
