United States or Argentina ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
For several days, during which we captured another whale, we were cruising about, in the hopes of finding a passage through the ice. We were now joined by a squadron of six other ships, all bent on the same object that we were, to find our way across Baffin's Bay to a spot called Pond's Bay, which has been found, of late years, to be frequented by a large number of whales.
Sir Thomas Button had explored Baffin's Land, Nelson River, and the Button Islands in 1612; Munck, the Dane, had found the mouth of the Churchill River in 1619, James and Fox had explored the inland sea in 1631; Shapley had brought a ship up from Boston in 1640; and Bourdon, the Frenchman, had gone up to the straits in 1656-1657.
"But, taking the other circumstances into consideration, I am inclined to record my vote in favour of Sir Reginalds suggestion." "Then let that decide it," remarked the colonel; "I am sure we shall have no cause to regret the choice." The Baffin's Bay route was accordingly agreed upon; and the ship's head was forthwith laid in a west-north-westerly direction for Cape Farewell.
Ross reached 77 deg. 40 min. latitude, and more accurately determined the situation of Baffin's Bay, which until then was believed to extend 10 deg. further to the east than it actually does. Although he sailed up Lancaster Sound, he did not advance far enough to ascertain if it was open, not having arrived there until October 1st, when danger from the ice obliged him to quit the coast.
Then they sailed westward across Baffin's Bay. Here navigation became more difficult, for this sea is the ordinary course of the polar icebergs which are drawn in by the innumerable currents which traverse it. Sometimes they found their course checked by insurmountable barriers of ice, which it was impossible to break, and therefore they were compelled to turn aside.
Old folks had clean giv' us up. Don't need never despair of folks gone to sea, for they's sure to turn up, first or last." "But I hope," said Mara, apprehensively, "that grandpapa won't get blown up to Baffin's Bay. I've seen that on his chart, it's a good ways." "And then there's them 'ere icebergs," said Mrs. Kittridge; "I'm always 'fraid of running into them in the fog."
In attempting to cross Baffin's Bay, by penetrating what is called the "middle ice," the Fox was beset, and finally frozen in for the winter; and here, although their voyage may be said to have just commenced, they were destined to spend many months in helpless inactivity and comparative peril and privation.
During the first expedition of Ross, he found an ice berg in Baffin's Bay, at a distance of seven leagues from the land, which was measured by a party under Lieutenant Parry. Considerable difficulty was experienced in the attempt to land, as, in rowing round the berg, they found it perpendicular in every place but one.
Between 1602 and 1668, English adventurers from London and Bristol, notable amongst whom were WILLIAM BAFFIN, LUKE FOX, and CAPTAIN JAMES, mapped the coasts of Hudson's Bay and Baffin's Bay and brought to the notice of merchants in England the abundance of whales in these Arctic waters, and of fur-bearing beasts and fur-trading Indians in the region of Hudson's Bay.
Believe me, that is worth all the engines in the world." "You must acknowledge," replied Shandon, "that the year doesn't begin under very favourable auspices." "That is incontestable, and I notice that Baffin's Sea has a tendency to return to the same state in which it was before 1817." "Then you think, doctor, that the present state of things has not always existed?"
Word Of The Day