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It is admitted, that the equatorial parts have rather too much 

 heat for the comforts of the inhabitants, and thofe within the 

 Polar circles too little; but, as we know that the tropical limits 

 are peopled, it mould feem that the two Polar circles are equally 

 deftined for the fame purpofe; or if not for the benefit of man, 

 at leaft for the fuftenance of certain animals. 



The largeft of thefe, in the whole fcale of Creation, is the 

 whale; which, though a nm, cannot live long under water, with- 

 out occaiionally railing its head into another elerrient, for the pur- 

 pofe of refpiration y : moft other nm alfo occasionally approach the 

 furface of the water. 



If the ice therefore extends from N. lat. 8oi- to the Pole, all 

 the intermediate fpace is denied to the Spitzbergen whales, as well 

 perhaps as to- other fifh ; and is that glorious luminary, the Sun, 

 to mine in vain for half the year upon ten degrees of latitude 

 round each of the Poles, without contributing either to animal 

 life or vegetation ? . for neither can take place upon this dreary 

 expanfe of ice. . 



If this tract of fea alfo is thus rendered improper for the fup- 

 pprt of whales, thefe enormous fim, which require fo much room, 

 will be confined to two or three degrees of latitude in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Spitzbergen; for all the Greenland mafters agree, 

 that the beft.fifhing ftations are from 79 to 80, and : that they 

 do not often catch them to the Southward. . 



Twill now alk, if the fea is congealed from N. lat. 8b.i quite 

 to the Pole, when did it thus begin to freeze, as it is well known, 

 that a large quantity of fea water is not eafily forced to a flu me 



y " Sometimes the ice is fixed, when there are but few whales feen, for 

 " underneath the. ice they cannot breathe/' Martens's Voyage to Spitz- 

 bergen. 



The whales likewife are fuppofed to come from the North; .but how 

 can this be, if there is an incrufted fea over them ? 



the. 



