Year: 1876

The disaster to the New Bedford whal-
ing feet in the Arctic Sea reminds us
that the haunts of the leviathan of the
ocean are more inaccessible than they
were years ago. When the Biscayans
began the fishery in the twelfth century
the king of the Arctic ranged from
Spitzbergen nearly to the equator.
When the Dutch and English embarked
in the business a century or two later the
Bay of Biscay had ceased to be its
habitat, and the affrighted monster had
begun its retreat through the chilly
waters of the North Sea and the North
Atlantic to the forbidding localities be-
yond North Cape and Iceland, where the
ice foes grind and snap, the icebergs reel
and thunder, and the white bear makes
its home in the everlasting SHOWS. The
whale, SO vindictively pursued by the
English, Dutch, Russians, and Norwe-
gians, made, in time, flank movement,
and appeared in vast numbers along the
eastern shores of North America.
1t was about this time that the Nan.
tucketers observed whales spouting and
sporting in the sea off shore, and one of
them said: "There is green pasture
where your children's children will 60
for bread" And this green field the
hardy sons of New England have titled
diligently from that day to this. 1t is
related that the first bowhead whale in
Behring Sea was captured in l843. In
l847 they were discovered in the Ocnotsk
Sea. The bowhead whale has retired
from sea to sea until he is now at his
"last ditch" at the North Pole. He ap-
pears disinclined to stop short of the
latitude of unmelting ice and snow. In
connection with the recent disaster to
the New Bedford fleet, it is a little
singular that just about year ago whale
men were on the lookout for q repetition
of the catastrophe of 1871, when another
fatal wind should bear down with its icy
Gordon, and, with its right wing resting
on Icy Cape, sweep the whole fotilla
high and dry on the low beach that
fringes the northern coast. The disaster,
however, and unfortunately, had hap
pened a year later than was predicted,
although in somewhat different form,
but with terrible results. Whalemen, it
is said, note a most remarkable change
in the seasons of the Arctic Zone. A few
years ago they reached the whaling
grounds sometimes in August, only to be
obliged to leave them early in Septem-
Der (as was the case in the late disaster).
Two years ago they fingered into October,
and might have delayed longer 80 far as
peril from the ice-pack was concerned.
They went within eighty miles of the
mouth of the Mckenzie River, where
sailing vessels, we believe, never have
been before; and it was thought at the
time that q steam vessel, aided by the
currents, might have easily gone through
to Baffin's Bay, a distance of less than
one thousand miles from the extreme
point attained, thus solving the mystery
of the northwest passage.


Smiths Bay is only forty-five miles
from where the crews Of the recently
abandoned ships were left; and, as there
was an abundance of provisions on board
of the vessels, it is thought by ex
perienced New Bedford ship-masters
familiar with the coast, that the men
having no fear of starvation, wood and
water being plenty, and the shores linec
with driftwood, and the seal, deer, anc
seafowl found in abundance, will worry
through the ice to Smiths Bay, where
they may remain in safety until de
| liyered from their unfortunate condition
by some vessel sent there for the pur


bose but it is possible that some of th'
officers among the brave men may brinl
their ships to port. In fact, there is m


reason for alarm at all for those men VIII


stuck by their ships with their valuabl
| carpOes