Transcriber’s Note italic text shown as _italic_ [Illustration: SPITZBERGEN.] THE ARCTIC REGIONS AND THE NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY. BY CAPTAIN SCORESBY, F.R.S.E. LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY: _Instituted 1799_. 56, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 65, ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD. PREFACE. The following pages contain, in an abridged and somewhat modified form, the substance of the first volume of captain (now the rev. Dr.) Scoresby’s work on the Arctic Regions and the Whale-fishery, Edinburgh, 1820; with the omission of the third chapter on the Hydrographical Survey of the Greenland Sea. It is now issued by the kind permission of the author; and a wider circulation may thus be secured for the interesting contents of his volumes than they could receive in their original and more costly form. Some few materials have also been collated from the valuable papers by the same author contributed to the “Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.” CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page REMARKS ON THE CELEBRATED QUESTION OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SEA COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS, BY THE NORTH; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS 9 CHAPTER II. DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE POLAR COUNTRIES 33 CHAPTER III. AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREENLAND OR POLAR ICE 62 CHAPTER IV. OBSERVATIONS ON THE ATMOSPHEROLOGY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS, PARTICULARLY RELATING TO SPITZBERGEN AND THE ADJACENT GREENLAND SEA 96 CHAPTER V. A SKETCH OF THE ZOOLOGY OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS 139 CHAPTER VI. EXPEDITIONS FOR FURTHER DISCOVERY 188 THE ARCTIC REGIONS. CHAPTER I. REMARKS ON THE CELEBRATED QUESTION OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SEA COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS, BY THE NORTH; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS.