Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/106

74 Barents Seas, and afterwards to the west of Franz Josef Land, where Mr. Jackson confirms their report that very little difficulty was experienced from ice up to the 80th parallel; Mr. Arnold Pike and the captain of the 'Balæna' to the east of Spitzbergen and Wyche's Land; and Colonel Feilden to the eastward of Novaya Zemyla and the Kara Sea;—all bear testimony to the remarkable absence of ice. The causes which contribute to bring about these extensive variations in the limits of what may be regarded as the polar ice fringe are too complicated for me to attempt any explanation here, even were I at all competent to do so (Capt. Gray offers some very pertinent suggestions in the paper before quoted), but, confining my remarks to the Greenland Seas, there can be no doubt the chief cause of the recent packing of the ice on the east coast of Greenland was the long prevalence of E. and N.E. gales. The 'Balæna' reports that she reached the N.E. fishing grounds about the end of April, and experienced there the worst weather on record.

On May 1st, following a few days of mild foggy weather, there came a succession of N.E. gales, which lasted till the middle of the month, and forced the vessels to seek partial shelter in the pack-ice. This "blizzard" was followed by strong easterly winds; gale succeeded gale until June 20th, and the severity of the weather is described as exceeding anything within the memory of the oldest man in the fleet. The result of this state of things was that the ice became "hammered" against the east coast of Greenland, and was so compacted, that where in ordinary years a belt exists extending seaward from 150 to 200 miles, with open floes such as the Whales love to frequent, in the past season it did not reach more than fifty miles from the shore, and was packed so tight as to be perfectly impenetrable. This condition of the ice was of course fatal to the fishery, as the vessels were unable to search for the Whales in their favourite feeding grounds; and it was not till May 29th that a fish was found. This the 'Balæna' was fortunate enough to capture, and the only other Whale seen in the Greenland Seas during the entire season was sighted about the middle of June, but could not be approached.

There being no prospect of success in the Greenland waters, the fleet, consisting of the 'Active,' the 'Balæna,' and the 'Diana,'