The Arctic Whaleman; or, Winter in the Arctic Ocean

by Lewis Holmes

The right whale is a cold water fish. It has been found by the examination of "records kept by different ships for hundreds of thousands of days, that the tropical regions of the ocean are to the right whale as a sea of fire, through which he cannot pass, and into which he never enters."

It has also been supposed, that since the right whale does not cross the torrid zone, which to him is as a belt of liquid fire through which he cannot pass, therefore "the right whale of the northern hemisphere is a different animal from that of the southern."

It is, however, a well-established fact, "that the same kind of whale which is found off the shores of Greenland, in Baffin's Bay, etc., is also found in the North Pacific, and about Behring Straits; the inference therefore is, that there must be an opening for the passage of whales from one part of the Arctic Ocean to the other."

The following facts are taken from Maury's recent work on "The Physical Geography of the Sea," and cannot fail of being interesting to whalemen, and indeed to all classes of readers:—

"It is the custom among whalers to have their harpoons marked with date and name of the ship; and Dr. Scoresby, in his work on 'Arctic Voyages,' mentions several instances of whales that have been taken near Behring's Straits side with harpoons in them bearing the stamps of ships that were known to cruise on the Baffin's Bay side of the American continent; and as, in one or two instances, a very short time had elapsed between the date of capture in the Pacific and the date when the fish must have been struck on the Atlantic side, it was argued, therefore, that there was a north-west passage by which the whales passed from one side to the other, since the stricken animal could not have had the harpoon in him long enough to admit of a passage around either Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope.

"Thus the fact was approximately established that the harpooned whales did not pass around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope, for they were of the class that could not cross the equator. In this way we are furnished with circumstantial proof affording the most irrefragable evidence that there is, at times at least, open water communication through the Arctic Sea from one side of the continent to the other; for it is known that the whales cannot travel under the ice for such a great distance as is that from one side of the continent to the other.

"But this did not prove the existence of an open sea there; it only established the existence—the occasional existence, if you please—of a channel through which whales had passed. Therefore we felt bound to introduce other evidence before we could expect the reader to admit our proof, and to believe with us in the existence of an open sea in the Arctic Ocean.

"There is an under current setting from the Atlantic through Davis's Strait into the Arctic Ocean, and there is a surface current setting out. Observations have pointed out the existence of an under current there, for navigators tell us of immense icebergs which they have seen drifting rapidly to the north, and against a strong surface current. These icebergs were high above the water, and their depth below, supposing them to be parallelopipeds, was seven times greater than their height above. No doubt they were drifted by a powerful under current."

Dr. Kane reports an open sea north of the parallel of 82°. To reach it, his party crossed a barrier of ice 80 or 100 miles broad. Before reaching this open water, he found the thermometer to show the extreme temperature of 60° below zero. Passing this ice-bound region by traveling north, he stood on the shores of an iceless sea, extending in an unbroken sheet of water as far as the eye could reach towards the pole. Its waves were dashing on the beach with the swell of a boundless ocean. The tides ebbed and flowed in it, and it is apprehended that the tidal wave from the Atlantic can no more pass under this icy barrier to be propagated in seas beyond, than the vibrations of a musical string can pass with its notes a fret upon which the musician has placed his finger.... These tides, therefore, must have been born in that cold sea, having their cradle about the north pole. If these statements and deductions be correct, then we infer that most, if not all, the unexplored regions about the pole are covered with deep water; for, were this unexpected area mostly land or shallow water, it could not give birth to regular tides. Indeed, the existence of these tides, with the immense flow and drift which annually take place from the polar seas into the Atlantic, suggests many conjectures concerning the condition of the unexplored regions.

Whalemen have always been puzzled as to the place of breeding for the right whale. It is a cold water animal; and, following up this train of thought, the question is prompted, Is the nursery for the great whale in this polar sea, which has been so set about and hemmed in with a hedge of ice that man may not trespass there? This providential economy is still further suggestive, prompting us to ask, Whence comes the food for the young whales there? Do the teeming waters of the Gulf Stream convey it there also, and in channels so far down in the depths of the sea that no enemy may waylay and spoil it on the long journey? These facts therefore lead us to the opinion that the polar sea may be an exhaustless resource for the supply of whales for other seas, as well as a common rendezvous for them during the intense cold of arctic winters. Dr. Kane found the temperature of this polar sea only 36°!