May 29th and 30th, Course nearly E. S. E. towards the Seven Islands. We had on the 30th a considerable quantity of bay ice, and made but little progress. Occasional showers of snow. Saw only one whale.
31st, Tacked to the W. S. W. Ice increasing. Saw several whales. Lay to for fishing. Got a very large whale, which measured sixty-four feet in length.
During the flinching of the whales, there were generally a considerable number of sharks in the vicinity of the vessel. They were principally of that variety termed Squalus pristis, or Saw-Fish. At this time, one more voracious than the rest, approached close to the side of the whale’s carcass, and seized a large piece of blubber, which was ready to be hoisted on board. Before he could make his escape, however, he was struck by a harpoon, and his flight being thus obstructed, he was attacked with spears: a tackle was immediately fastened to his jaws, and being hoisted on deck, his belly was ripped open, and the blubber recovered. The carpenter, too, stripped a considerable quantity of skin from his tail. Notwithstanding this rude treatment, he was no sooner let down than he swam away with great agility.
The Squalus pristis, or Saw-Fish is often found upwards of fifteen feet long; with sword-shaped bony snout, nearly one-third the length of the fish, and denticulated on both sides: mouth placed beneath the anterior part of the head; jaws furnished with several rows of teeth; habit rather slender; body convex above, and somewhat flattened beneath; skin rough; colour greyish brown above, paler beneath.
June 1st, Continued in the same situation, being almost icebound. Sent out the boats after a whale, which made its escape below the ice after being struck; the lines of course were lost. The harpoons are marked with the names of the ship and captain, and if a whale that has been killed by one ship be found by another, she is obliged to deliver up a certain portion of the blubber to the former.
From June 1st to June 7th, the weather was, upon the whole pretty good, though the squalls were very frequent, accompanied by dense showers of snow. The rigging, by this time, had assumed a very strange appearance, at least what would be deemed as such by a more southern sailor. The ropes were frequently increased to double their usual size by the incrustations of ice, which had to be beat off by handspikes to allow them to pass through the blocks. The decks were every now and then besprinkled with saw-dust and sand, to counteract the slippiness arising from the combined effects of frost and grease. The cabin-floor, too, was covered with saw-dust, and the crew kept some of it in their pockets to clean their hands. In this space of time we catched five fish of different magnitudes.
During the time we were in those high latitudes, our compasses, five in number, varied widely from each other; but this is known to happen to all compasses, according as they are placed in different parts of the ship. That which was kept in the cabin varied the least. This may perhaps tend to confirm the opinion of some navigators, who have maintained that the polarity of the needle is injured by intense cold. The notion of the variation decreasing as the distance from the Pole diminishes, does not appear to have any foundation. According to Captain Phipps,
| In Lat. 78° 22´ N. | Long. 9° 8´ E. | Mean var. was 14° 55´ |
| 79 50 | 10 2 | 20 3 |
| 80 30 | 15 4 | 11 56 |
On referring to the Appendix, it will be seen that the variation, as observed in the Sybyll, in lat. 78° 11´, long. 6° 55´ E. amounted to 19° 6´. And by the same excellent observations, combined with those of Captain Flinders, it is proved that the variation depends more on the ship’s course than on any thing else. It is much to be regretted that Captain Phipps did not mention the course his ship was under when he made his observations on the variation. As they stand at present, they want the most essential element.