The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-10 00:00:00

THE WHALE FISHERIES I'V THE ARCTIC

REGIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,•—lt is now nearly 300 years ago since William
Barentsz, one of the earliest navigators, first ventured
far into the unknown depths of the northern regions.
He in one short summer discovered and circumnavigated
Spitzbergen, and traced the shores of Novaya Zemlya to
its northeastern end. The immediate consequence of
that remarkable voyage was the dispatch, by enterpris-
ing English merchants, of several vessels for the capture
of certain animals met with by Barentsz in those re-
gions. The small island to the south of Spitzbergen,
called Bear or Cherie Island—one of Barentsz's disco-
veries—was particularly resorted to for the capture of
the seahorses or walrusses, from which a valuable oil
was extracted. So great was the number of these ani-
mals found there, that a thousand of them were once
killed in the short space of seven hours by the crew of
a single vessel. In the course of time, as might be ex-
pected, this indiscriminate slaughter frightened away the
survivors, and the island soon becoming deserted, the
benefit of the trade was lost. As Bear Island was at
this time the only source whence England derived her
supply of oil, the merchants were induced to seek that
material elsewhere, and the capture of the largest of
animals, the whale, was now ventured upon. Such was
the origin of the British whale fishery in the Greenland
seas. The history and the circumstances of that im-
portant branch of industry are well known.
There is only one circumstance which seems to have
hitherto escaped observation, and that circumstance is
this:—

The reason why the chief seat of the Greenland whale
fishery was always confined to the western side of Spitz-
bergea is because that side was more sheltered from the
currents and drifting bodies of ice, and, consequently,
more free from ice than any other. Hence it was that
the eastern side, where the current has a tendency to
turn the ice against the shore, was, from the very be-
ginning, shunned by the whalers, who at first had such
a dread of the ice that immediately on the whale enter-
ing it the line was cut and the monster allowed to escape.
Even when the whalers grew more bold, and the ice
masses on the western side of Spitzbergen were to them
no more insurmountable obstacles, a deep-rooted pre-
judice seems to have taken possession of their minds
against the eastern side, as we find that the sea between
Spitzbergen and Novaya. Zemlya has always been ne-
glected by whalers, as well as by explorers, without any
particular reason. Hence, scarcely anything is known
of that large sea, and although I have most cArefully and
honestly gone through all works relating to those re-
gions, I must confess my profound ignorance as regards
absolute and undeniable facts. Nobody knows anything
about it; neither Scoresby nor Parry, neither Beechey,
Buchan, nor Franklin—renowned explorers of those
quarters—have extended their voyages to the cast of
Spitzbergen, and the slight allusions made in their
works are vague and uncertain. Yet it is almost nearer
to England than any other Arctic sea—the distance
to the Shetland Islands being about the same as that to
the Baltic, and, as to navigableness, I defy any one
to adduce any reasonable ground why it should be
more difficult to navigate than any other Arctic
sea. One would have thought that the results cf
the only well-conducted and authentic voyage in that
sea—namely, that of Barentsz—would have had sore
weight ; but no. I will hero give the description of tis
sailing up along the eastern shores of Spitzbergen (ex-
tracted from the first good edition of his voyages, nowon
the eve of publication by the Haktuyt Society), whici is
just the region that seems to be considered by every me
now-a-days as impracticable and impenetrable :
" .. . the 15 of June, when the sunne was sosth-
east (half-past 8 a.m.), with mistie and drisling weather,
and sus/NI north and north and by east ; about evening
it cleared vp, and then wee saw a great driving ire the
sea, which wee thought had been a shippe, but passing
along by it, wee perceived it to be a dead whale, that
stounelte monsterously; and on it there sate a great num-
ber of sea-mewes. At that time we had sayled 80 miles.
Tiae 16 of June, with the like speede wee sayled north
and by east, with mistie weather ; and as wee sayled,
we heard the ice before we saw it ; but after, when it
cleared vp, wee saw it, and then wound off from it, when,
as wee guest, we had sayled 120 miles "-200 miles in
two days, in misty weather, in an unknown sea, and in
a little bark about the size of our fishing-boats, in which
it would be considered absolute madness at the present
day to venture into the same regions ! What greater
success in navigation can be exoected in the Arctic seas
than that which Barentsz had ? In truth, the assumed
difficulties for navigation in that sea are groundless, and
rest upon the imagination, forming one of those curious
geographical prejudices which, when once they take a
easysaio
resortt
to hstbeforetiimaginenu ttthehheu mt t
ohg.
par
et e
nat the
Yetwee ae
twat
rh isa
el
oe
ar su s
eof t theh etheir
r prefatherssent daydd not
do
hold of the public mind, are difficult to eradicate. It is
fuarwtheelrl
tkontohwe ns foatcht,
whalesamong
have frequently been seen in recent times by English
dntheo t
trading-vessels, in their route to Archangel. And w alio know that other useful animals, inplaces where
e
for-
merly they had been almost extirpated,have
again
recruited themselves, after having so long been
left gal
un-
molested ; for in Bear Island the capture of walrussesb
the Norwegian fishermen is often considerable. A party
of eight men, in comparatively recent times, went there
late in the year, and killed great numbers in the months
of November and December. " The pursuit," so says
the report, " was carried on very successfully, sometimes
by moonlight and the assistance of the aurora borealis,
and upon one day in the week before Christmas we
killed as many as 70." There is no doubt that the
Americans will, at no distant date, do at Novaya Zemlya
as they have done in the Behring's Straits fisheries.
Mr. J. Scott Russell, in his lecture on ships, pointed out
th© following moral cause as bearing on the success of
the Americans in another matter. He said, a Jahn Bull
has a prejudice against novelty ; Brother Jonathan has
a prejudice equally strong in favour of it. We adhere
to tradition in trade, ; Jonathan despises it." Per-
hap this may find an application in the whale fishing
incognitum. There are other reasons why
question also, if the English persist in leaving that large
sea a mar
that region should have been thoroughly explored long
before this.
The
has excited
readers to know
that a paper will be a good deal of atten-
tion, an
read at the meeting of the Royal
Monday OTellill inwhich
the Society, next
subject;
it
may
interest however,
some of your
Geographical g,
the subject will be fully discussed.
very obedient humble servant,
AUGUSTUS PETERMANN,
Cheri nlga- cm;o ss, Sir,
YNo°vu. r 6.

MR. LUCAS ON RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION..—Goaded
by the all but universal expression of disgust which
greeted Mr. Lucas's spoken and written opinions ap-
proving the terrible persecution of the Mediai family,
the Hon. Member for Meath has again rushed into print,
with a view, if possible, of clearing himself of the odium
fixed upon him by the manly protest of Serjeant Shee,
and the few spirited Roman Catholics who followed in
his wake. In the Tablet of Saturday there appears a
long letter addressed by Mr. Lucas to his stubborn an-
tagonist, in the course of which he endeavours to show
that he would not for the world's wealth touch a hair of
e Madi
the Tuscan victims' heads even for the offence of reading
crimp of
morn which
grievousth "a garbled " Bible ; but he denies that this was the
Lise—wenraemfoeulyn!
aguilty.clear ca
It
case lv
" Connemara soup-money-and-Bible proselytism," and
the Grand Duke, Mr. Lucas thinks, only " served them
was
a
right " by the measure of punishment which he meted
oat to the unhappy offenders.
SPURIOUS COIN.—The public cannot be too much on
their guard against baso and spurious coin, of which
there is a large quantity at this moment in circulation,
especially of the new florins, and threepenny and feu.
penny Fiwi,