Analysis of Mr Scoreshys Account 
is followed by very minute details of the different practices em- 
ployed by the fishers. The author first discusses the state of 
the fishery in early ages, and the manner in which it was car- 
ried on. He afterwards relates the different alterations, or ra- 
ther improvements, which it has undergone ; and, lastly, he de- 
scri es it as it is now practised in the Polar Regions. 
That part of the second volume, which comprehends the de- 
scription of the whale-fishery, is intimately connected with what 
is said in the first volume on the precautions necessary in navi- 
gating among ice. In fact, the whales, pursued by the fishers, 
take refuge in the least accessible places ; and one can only 
hope to meet with them by penetrating as near as possible to 
their retreat. The different species of ice require a different 
mode of navigating; and they also require a different procedure 
to discover the haunts of the whales, and to attack and to sub- 
due them. This distinction marks two very different modes of 
fishing. The one is that practised at Spitzbergen and Green- • 
land, where the whale is pursued in a wide sea, in which the 
ice covers a large extent of surface ; the other is that of Davis’ 
and Pludson’s Straits, where, besides the extensive fields of ice, 
they encounter floating ice-islands of prodigious size and eleva- 
tion. Systematic arrangement is conspicuous in those descrip- 
tions. After having discussed the most convenient size for 
ships destined to the whale-fishery. Captain Scoresby details the 
number of men suitable to each size, their necessary qualifica- 
tions, and tlie most advantageous mode of distributing them, 
either in the boats, of which he hxes the number in proportion 
to the tonnage, or in the various occupations on board the ship. 
He does not fail to describe the utensils used in the fisliery, and 
to ascertain the quantity necessary for a ship, according to her 
size. 
These details are of the highest utility, because they commu- 
nicate information only to be acquired by experience, and are 
followed by other topics of a nature to interest every class of 
readers ; for the author next treats of the preparations which 
should be made for the pursuit of the whale : On the manner 
of attack he lays down rules applicable to all cases ; and he 
follows up these by remarks on the precautions to be adopted 
when the animal takes refuge under fields of ice, of greater or 
