. Adventures of two youths in the open Polar Sea. en freshly frozenover; the ice was so thin that it would not bear the weight of a man, andtoo thick to be broken by rowing a boat through it. Whales were in thebay, and there were holes where they came up to breathe, aud Scoresbywanted to get at them. He went to work and made what he called ice-shoes; they were ofthin plank, six feet long by a foot wide, and in the centre of each plankhe made a place where his foot could be held by straps. With these shoeshe slid along the ice to the holes where the whales came up to breathe,and there he harpoo
. Adventures of two youths in the open Polar Sea. en freshly frozenover; the ice was so thin that it would not bear the weight of a man, andtoo thick to be broken by rowing a boat through it. Whales were in thebay, and there were holes where they came up to breathe, aud Scoresbywanted to get at them. He went to work and made what he called ice-shoes; they were ofthin plank, six feet long by a foot wide, and in the centre of each plankhe made a place where his foot could be held by straps. With these shoeshe slid along the ice to the holes where the whales came up to breathe,and there he harpooned them at his convenience. But after he had struck the harpoon into a whale the rough part of 4 50 THE VOYAGE OF THE VIVIAN. the business came. The creature dived, and by-and-by came up to breathe,and when lie rose lie wasnt particular whether he came to a hole or madea new one with his back. Scoresby followed on his ice-shoes to where hethought the whale would come up, and if he made a good guess, he gen-erally succeeded in finishing him CAPTAIN SCORESBY. Once he calculated a little too closely, for the whale came up rightunder where he stood, and sent the old captain into the air, ice-shoes andall. But there happened to be some strong ice close by, so he skipped outof his ice-shoes and made for the solid ice, where he could stand in safety. There were two Scoresbys, said the Doctor, and I presume it is ofthe elder you are speaking. Yes, answered Captain Jones; I forgot to say there were two of ORIGIN OF BRITISH EXPEDITIONS. 51 them, father and son. Both were named William: the father did not be-gin his seafaring life till 1790, when he was thirty years old, and he diedin 1829. The son ran away to sea in one of the fathers ships when lie1 was only ten years old, and six years later he had risen to the rank of firstmate. The elder Scoresby made many improvements in whaling, and itwas he that invented and used the ice-shoes I told about. He commandedthe ship Resolution,
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