| Summary: | ""The strip of water sometimes found between Icy Cape and Point Barrow is perhaps the most dangerous whaling ground yet discovered. The ice is of tremendous thickness, a hundred feet or more, and its movements are extremely variable . "" Muir relates that since 1848, when the first whaling ship came into the area, ""no less than forty-seven have been crushed . or pushed ashore, or embayed and swept away . ""Following the first ship, ""the news, like a gold discovery, spread rapidly, and within the next three years two hundred and fifty ships had obtained cargoes . This is, therefore, a comparitively new hunting ground, nevertheless it is being rapidly exhausted . There are now twelve whale ships about Point Barrow in sight from the Corwin, and all that would be necessary to shut them in is a gale from the southwest. Still the great love of action, and the great love of money, compels the risk here and elsewhere over and over again.""
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