Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/110

86 he mapped the coast southward to Tasiusak in 65° 35' N. latitude. There are, however, indications that a change is taking place. The Norwegian Walrus-hunter 'Hertha' found the ice very heavy in the past season on the coast of Franz Josef Land, and was unable to reach Cape Flora. The 'Stella Polaris' also experienced similar difficulties in the same seas; and, as will be seen, the west coast of Spitzbergen was encumbered with heavy ice, forming a great contrast to the open condition of the Greenland coast. But here also Capt. Robertson reports that the ice was accumulating, and the prevailing winds were easterly up to the time of his departing for Davis Strait on June 10th. A stoppage of the southerly drift, especially if accompanied by severe frosts cementing the pack together, would rapidly restore the normal condition of the ice, and the Greenland coast, as well as the seas to the east of Bear Island, would again be rendered unapproachable.

Now, when we consider that the presence of ice sufficiently heavy, although not too close, upon their feeding-grounds in about 75° to 79° N. latitude in the meridian of Greenwich, and again in about 73° N. and 13° W. longitude, is an absolute necessity for the well-being of the Right Whale, and that the Harp Seals haul up to whelp on the heavy ice usually found in certain well-known localities to the north-east of Jan Mayen, there seems little room for surprise that in the altered conditions which have prevailed of late years there should have been such a marked absence of both these animals. It is a question what has become of the Right Whales which formerly so abounded in the Greenland Seas: have they been totally fished out, or have