Description

Written by explorer, scientist and later clergyman William Scoresby (1789-1857), this two-volume guide to the Arctic regions was first published in 1820. Scoresby, himself the son of a whaler and Arctic explorer, first sailed to the polar regions at the age of eleven, and was later apprenticed to his father. He became a correspondent of Sir Joseph Banks, and his extensive research on the Arctic area included pioneering work in oceanography, magnetism, and the study of Arctic currents and waves. He surveyed 400 miles of the Greenland coast in 1822. This account was the first book published in Britain which was devoted solely to the whale fisheries. Volume 1 is a geographical survey of the region and includes information on ice conditions, weather and zoology. Volume 2 focuses on the fisheries and includes a history of whaling. The book ends with an account of an 1816 whaling expedition.