"There is an under current setting from the Atlantic through Davis's Strait into the Arctic Ocean, and there is a surface current setting out. Observations have pointed out the existence of an under current there, for navigators tell us of immense icebergs which they have seen drifting rapidly to the north, and against a strong surface current. These icebergs were high above the water, and their depth below, supposing them to be parallelopipeds, was seven times greater than their height above. No doubt they were drifted by a powerful under current." Dr. Kane reports an open sea north of the parallel of 82 deg.. To reach it, his party crossed a barrier of ice 80 or 100 miles broad. Before reaching this open water, he found the thermometer to show the extreme temperature of 60 deg. below zero. Passing this ice-bound region by traveling north, he stood on the shores of an iceless sea, extending in an unbroken sheet of water as far as the eye could reach towards the pole. Its waves were dashing on the beach with the swell of a boundless ocean. The tides ebbed and flowed in it, and it is apprehended that the tidal wave from the Atlantic can no more pass under this icy barrier to be propagated in seas beyond, than the vibrations of a musical string can pass with its notes a fret upon which the musician has placed his finger.... These tides, therefore, must have been born in that cold sea, having their cradle about the north pole. If these statements and deductions be correct, then we infer that most, if not all, the unexplored regions about the pole are covered with deep water; for, were this unexpected area mostly land or shallow water, it could not give birth to regular tides. Indeed, the existence of these tides, with the immense flow and drift which annually take place from the polar seas into the Atlantic, suggests many conjectures concerning the condition of the unexplored regions. Whalemen have always been puzzled as to the place of breeding for the right whale. It is a cold water animal; and, following up this train of thought, the question is prompted, Is the nursery for the great whale in this polar sea, which has been so set about and hemmed in with a hedge of ice that man may not trespass there? This providential economy is still further suggestive, prompting us to ask, Whence comes the _food_ for the young whales there? Do the teeming waters of the Gulf Stream convey it there also, and in channels so far down in the depths of the sea that no enemy may waylay and spoil it on the long journey? These facts therefore lead us to the opinion that the polar sea may be an exhaustless resource for the supply of whales for other seas, as well as a common rendezvous for them during the intense cold of arctic winters. Dr. Kane found the temperature of this polar sea only 36 deg.! Vessels that are fitted out for the purpose of whaling, whether for _sperm_ or _right_ whaling, and the time for which they are fitted, may be classed as follows:--