The Arctic regions and the northern whale-fishery

Chapter 2: PREFACE.

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About This Book

The work surveys the Arctic's physical geography, sea ice, currents, and prospects for a northern passage, tracing the history of exploration and presenting hydrographic observations. It combines navigational reports, natural history of whales and marine life, accounts of drift-wood and ice movements, and practical discussion of the northern whale fishery and its methods. Detailed observations on currents, ice formation and dissolution, and distribution of marine species support arguments about polar connectivity. The text interleaves scientific measurements, reports from voyages, and considerations of navigation hazards and resources to inform readers about the region's environment and the economics and challenges of whaling and Arctic exploration.

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.”