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Show 544 MR. R. BROWN ON THE CETACEANS [Nov. 12, sued his business on this portion of the coast; but they are now so few that they have generally gone north before the arrival of those ships which have first proceeded to the Spitzbergen sealing. It is rarely found on the Greenland coast south of 65°, or north of 73°; indeed I have only heard of one instance in which it has been seen as far north as the Duck Islands near the entrance of Melville Bay, and even for a considerable distance south of that it can only be looked upon as ail occasional straggler. However, after crossing to the western shores of Davis Strait, it occasionally wanders as far north as the upper reaches of Baffin's Bay. The great body, however, leave the coast of Greenland in June, crossing by the " middle ice," in the latitude of Svarte Huk (Black Hook), in about lat. 71° 30' N . The whaler presses with all speed north through Melville Bay to the upper waters of Baffin's Bay, and across to the vicinity of Lancaster Sound. If there is land-ice in Baffin's Bay at the time they arrive (about the end of July), there are generally some Whales up that Sound and Barrow's Inlet; but they accumulate in greatest numbers in the neighbourhood of Pond's Bay, and even up Eclipse Sound, the continuation of the so-called Pond's Bay, which is in reality an extensive unexplored sound opening away into the intricacies of the Arctic archipelago. The Whales continue " running" here until the end of June, and remain until about the end of August or beginning of September. The whalers think that if they can reach Pond's Bay by the beginning of August they are sure of a "full" ship. The Whales now commence going south, and the whalers continue to pursue them on their austral migration, halting for that purpose in Home Bay, Scott's Inlet, Clyde River, &c. As the season gets more tempestuous and the nights dark, most of them towards the end of September, to avoid the icebergs dashing about in this region at that time of the year, anchor in a snug cove, or cut de sac, lying off an extensive unexplored sound, not laid down on any map, in the vicinity of Cape Hooper; others go into a place known by the euphonious name of "Hangman's Cove"*; whilst others go south to Kemisoak (Hogarth's Sound of Penny), Northumberland Inlet, or other places in the vicinity of Cumberland Sound and the Meta Incognita of Frobisher,-localities intimately known to many of these hardy seamen, but by name only to geographers. Whilst the good ship lies secure in these unsurveyed and unauthorized harbours (each master mariner according to his predilection), the boats go outside to watch for Whales. If they succeed in capturing one, frequently, if possible, the vessel goes out aud assists in securing it. Though they are supposed to return to the ship every night, yet at this time the men are often subjected to great hardship and danger. This is known as the "autumn" or "fall fishing," and this method of pursuing it as " rock-nosing." M. Guerin, the surgeon of a whaler, has describedf what he considers a marked variety of the Right Whale under the name of the " Rock-nosed Whale." The characters which he gives (such as the head being considerably more than one-third the size of the animal, * From an Eskimo being found here hung bv an allunak over a cliff. t Edinb. New Phil. Journ. 1845, p. 267. |