THE WHALE FISHERIES. OFFICIAL GUIDE to the FINEST FISHERIES. [From the Glasgow Daily Mail.]

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 606, 4 February 1852, Page 2

THE WHALE FISHERIES. OFFICIAL GUIDE to the FINEST FISHERIES. [From the Glasgow Daily Mail.]

The following document has been recently issued by the United States Government for the guidance of its whalers in all tbe important regions of the whale fisheries :■— To Commander L. Wamngton, Chief of Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography. Sir, —l Lave the honour to enclose for your official action tbe accompanying " Notice to Whalemen," which is derived from the investigations that have been carried on at this office with regard to the migratory habits nnd places of resort of the whale, sperm and rjght. I have reason to believe tbsTt the right whale of the southern hemisphere is quite a different animal to that of the northern ; that the two are separated by (to them) an impassable hairier. I have also reason to suspect, fiom results that have been elicited iti the course of these investigations, that the same whale which is taken in Behring's Straits is taken in Baffin's B.iy also; and, if tins be so, these investigations prove beyond question that this animal cannot pass from one region to the other except through tbe Arctic ocean ; and hence we ar3 entitled to infer that there is, at times at least, an open water communication between these straits and the bay; in other woids, that there is a north-west passage. This interesting piece of circumstantial evidence in favour of a passage tbeie was called to the

notice of Lieutenant Do Haven, « lien he left this oihce to take command of the expeduion in bfarcli of Sir John Fmnklin and his compani^n^. >So much wa->thatpn terpiismg officer unprefaced with tho impoi lance of this suggestion, find tlio consideiationb •riowintr out oi it, tbat be expressed the intention, alte.i leachmu tho Arctic sea, to obaeive closely tin 1 habits ot the whale, and should these fi~>'i bo obbeivul to takr> a westw.iully course, to use them as pilot*, by the way. Tin* wind and cimenl chaits give me reason to conjecture that tbe whalemen who attempt to ciuise in hn>h southern latitudes will find it a legion of heavy weather, for though our lesearchos have not yet been (intended to tbat quaiter, the results attained with regard to the trade winds indicate, tbat in the peneral system of atmosphencal^cii dilation the pievailino wind a aie less liable to mteiruption, and tbat tins geneial sjtem of ciiculation is moie active in tho southern than in the nortbern hemisphere; and tberefoi,3 it mn bo suggested, by way of precaution, that none but staunch, well-fitted and found vessels should undeitake the high southern ciuiac. — Rehpectiully, &c, J\l. 1 ? . Maorv, Lieutenant, U. S. N. National Obsoivatory, Washington, April 1(3, 1851.