John Laing

“ In Foula they drive a small stake or dagger in the soil at the top of the precipice, to which they fasten a fishing line. By this slender assistance they descend to the place where the nests are, which they plunder, and ascend again with amazing intrepidity. This manner of fowling was, by the Norwegian law, considered a species of suicide.
What is still more extraordinary, custom has so hardened the Shetlanders against all sense of danger, that they will wander among the rocks at night, in order to surprise the old fowl upon the nest. ”

“ When the sun shines, the appearance of this finny tribe is most beautiful, being similar to a spacious field of variegated gems.
They afford a sure subsistence to vast multitudes of birds, of whales, and other fish; and, to complete their destruction, man himself joins in the common chase. ”

“ As if impatient of rest, they are frequently seen passing from one island of ice to another, and are often met with at a great distance from land. They are frequently drifted into Iceland and Norway, where, from the extreme hunger [Pg 75] they suffer in their passage thither, they make dreadful ravages among the cattle, but are soon dispatched by the inhabitants, who rise in a body as soon as they learn that one of them has approached their shores. The government of Iceland encourages the destruction of these animals, by paying a premium of ten dollars for every bear that is killed. ”

“ The eloquent and ingenious Buffon was of opinion that the Phocæ approached to fish by a still more decisive criterion. “They are the only animals,” says he, “which have the foramen ovale open, and which can therefore live without respiring, and to whom water is as proper and suitable an element as air.” Theoretic views appear to have here led this excellent writer into an error, as it is now well known that the Phocæ cannot remain long in the water without coming to the surface to breathe. ”

“ All around the ship, ice was formed on the surface of the water; I observed the spiculæ darting with considerable velocity, and in an immense variety of forms. This ice, when newly formed, is of a bay colour, and when it has attained the thickness of window glass is called by the sailors, bay ice. It is rough on the surface, and opaque; if the frost be not interrupted by a swell of the sea, or storm, the salt-water ice often extends to an immense distance. It is by the Greenland sailors termed a field, when of such extent that the eye cannot reach its bounds. ”

“ It makes its nest in the most remote parts of the North, in the islets of fresh water lakes. Each pair possesses a lake. Its sight is keen, flies well, and, darting obliquely, drops safely into its nest. When pursued, it saves itself by diving; but when it has young ones, it does not make its escape, but strives to beat off its enemy with its bill.
Emberiza nivalis, or Snow Bunting, is found in vast numbers at Spitzbergen, and as it is graminivorous, its frequenting a country so ill provided with vegetables, has justly been regarded as a very surprising phenomenon. ”

“ Sometimes the heat is so great as to melt the pitch on the decks and cordage of the vessels, and in a few minutes after, succeed high winds, snow, and frost. The sky, even in calm and serene weather, is covered with dense white clouds, the repositories of the snow so often falling.
The degree of heat experienced in these northern latitudes being so much greater than is experienced in the same latitudes in the southern hemisphere, is supposed to proceed from the greater quantity of land in the north reflecting the rays of the sun, which in the south are absorbed by the ocean. ”

“ The water was greatly agitated, and rose to an immense height, accompanied with a noise that stunned the ears of the hearers. A fog coming on prevented Marten from ascertaining the result of this direful combat; but he was informed [Pg 108] by the sailors that the whale was generally vanquished; and that they kept aloof till such time as the saw-fish, eating the tongue, relinquished the carcass, which they made their prey.
A species of crab, vulgarly called the whale-louse, the Oniscus ceti of Fabricius, if not the most dangerous, is perhaps the most troublesome of the whale’s enemies. ”

“ The smaller fragments of salt-water ice are called seal meadows, and on them these animals often sport by hundreds.
In storms large masses of ice are frequently piled on each other, to a considerable height; these are called packs, and often assume a very fantastic appearance. The grinding noise occasioned by the collision of those huge masses of ice against each other, and against the ship, not only fills the mind of the auditor with a degree of horror, but, for a considerable time, deprives him of the sense of hearing. ”

“ In sultry days, and, indeed, in all weathers, navigators are much harassed in those seas by the fogs; they, however, chiefly occur towards the latter end of summer. They are excessively dense, and at a distance are frequently mistaken for land. In winter, when the cold is intense, a vapour called fog smoke frequently arises from the chinks of the ice, which is so acrid as to excoriate the face and hands of those who approach it. ”

“ According to Fabricius, their time of parturition is in the winter, and their number of young at a birth seldom exceeds two. At this period, if on land, they make large dens in the snow; but they frequently bring forth in some of those vast caverns, so often found in the huge masses of packed ice. Their attachment to their offspring is remarkably great. When mortally wounded, they will take their little cubs under their paws, embrace, and bemoan them with their latest breath.
Polar bears are equally at home by land and by sea, where they swim with great strength and agility ”

“ The whale-fishers at all times require unremitting vigilance to secure their safety, but scarcely in any situation, so much as when navigating amidst those fields. In foggy weather they are particularly dangerous, as their motion cannot then be distinctly observed. It may easily be imagined, that the strongest ship can no more withstand the shock of the contact of two fields, than a sheet of paper can stop a musket ball. Numbers of vessels, since the establishment of the fishery, have been thus destroyed. Some have been thrown upon the ice ”

“ It blew this day a brisk gale from the east, which was intolerably cold; the wind at that time passes over large fields of ice, and in that climate, is comparatively as noxious as it is in Britain. During a fresh easterly breeze, I have found the cold in the cabin so intense, that, notwithstanding we had a good fire and warm clothing, I have been obliged to put on furred gloves to enable me to hold a book. We this day killed several seals, and might have got many more, but they are not of much use unless the vessel be fitted out for their fishing only. ”

“ If a man tread on the tongs in the morning, or be asked where he is going, he need not go to the fishing that day. When at sea, the fishermen employ a nomenclature peculiar to the occasion, and scarcely a single thing then retains its usual name. ”

“ Now, I have no hesitation in saying, that if the same difference in the variation is to be found on board of a Greenland ship, that was found to exist in the Sybyll and Princess Carolina, the idea of a strong easterly current is unfounded, and is merely resorted to, to account for the error in their dead reckoning, arising from their not allowing a sufficiency of westerly variation in running from the ice to the south-west. A degree of longitude is soon lost in those high latitudes, and the error must increase in running to the south-west, if proper allowance be not made ”

“ With proper management, a cod might then have been prepared for the market in three days, while at Newfoundland, in the best weather, it requires five.
“At Newfoundland, they have only from twelve to fourteen hours sun; at Hammerfest, nearly four months. The advantages, therefore, as to climate, on the side of Hammerfest, are most obvious. Perhaps, too, an establishment in the North might, in time of war, be of some importance, as it would the better enable us to prevent our enemies enjoying any share of so lucrative a trade as the whale fishing. ”

“ The arms [Pg 81] and legs of the Phocæ, (if we may employ these terms,) are wholly enveloped in the flesh of the animal, the hands and feet being alone protruded; these too are webbed, and are instruments evidently more calculated for swimming than moving on land.
This unaptness of organization is strongly displayed in the painful motion of the animal, which, from the shortness of its legs, has to rest at every step on its belly, until it prepares for a new advance. Its agility, considering these defects, is indeed astonishing, and is certainly the effect of great exertion. ”

“ On land they prey on the rein-deers, young birds, and eggs; and sometimes lay hold of the Arctic fox, notwithstanding all his stratagems in order to escape. Some naturalists have maintained that the Polar bear chiefly delighted in human flesh; this, however, is expressly contradicted by Fabricius, who, from his long residence in Greenland, must be allowed to be unexceptionable authority. It will not prey on man, says he, unless pressed by hunger, and it deserves to be mentioned, that the Greenlanders feign themselves dead when they wish to avoid the pursuit. ”

“ The driver (if so he may be called) goes before the oxen, and pulls them on by a rope tied round their horns; and some with spades follow, to level the furrow and break the clods. Such seed as I saw, was not so good as that called drawings, or small corn, in Britain, and was also chaffy, and seemingly of a bad species. From the appearance of a stubble, it was evident that their crops were neither luxuriant nor prolific.
So prevalent is their rage for fishing, that the only land used in husbandry is that along the sea coast, which bears no proportion to that lying waste and uncultivated. ”

“ The mountains of Spitzbergen have been observed, by voyagers, to decline in altitude towards the east; neither are the eastern mountains so black, steep, or naked, as those more to the west. This curious phenomenon is considered by some naturalists as a general law of nature. The mountains here are totally composed of one entire and single mass of granite. The only fissures discovered in their vast extent, are formed by the intensity of the frost rending them assunder. ”

“ It brings forth its young in the same manner, preys on the same kinds of fish, and, like the seal, ascends the ice, (more rarely the land,) to bask in the sun.
The walrus is a very valuable animal, yielding frequently half a tun of oil, equally valuable with that of the whale. The tusks are said to be more [Pg 87] valuable than those of the elephant, as being more compact and hard, and consequently taking a finer polish: the skin, which is nearly an inch thick, is used to cover the masts or yards of ships, where they cross each other, to prevent their being injured by the friction. ”

“ On the west side of Spitzbergen there are some safe harbours and roads for ships. The sea near the shore is, for the most part, shallow, and the bottom rocky; but it often suddenly deepens to some hundred fathoms, where the lead sinks in soft mud, and sometimes mixed with shells. In Smeerenberg, which has a sandy bottom, vessels may ride in thirteen fathoms water not far from the shore, where they are sheltered from all winds.
The tide, from the number of islands through which it passes, flows very irregularly, in some places only three and four feet. ”

“ Naturalists differ greatly as to the food of the unicorn. Perhaps it differs with the parts of the ocean it inhabits. Small fishes, Mollusca and Actinea, are their more general food.
The Narwhal swims with great swiftness, and, like the other cetacea, cannot remain long under the water without respiring. When frightened, or attacked, they huddle together in such numbers that they force their long horns into the body of each other, and thereby become an easy prey to their pursuers.
This animal, though seemingly harmless, is, as already mentioned, a dangerous enemy of the common whale ”

“ The walrus is the most dangerous enemy the bear has to contend with, and his immense tusks [Pg 74] often give him a decided superiority. What the bear, however, wants in strength, he supplies by cunning, as he takes huge fragments of ice in his paws, and, dashing them against the head of the walrus, attacks and kills him after he is stunned by these blows. The one and the other often fall in this desperate fray. ”