The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1884-08-28
WHALE FISHING
Il INDUSTRY IN THE ARCTIC.
,., rutcrsst'nc Facts From the North
arm Flee Many Whales struck
and Lost How the
Whalcrs Work IN Ice.

/ w naltIs hoIh III ACSs
Forty-one vessels went up on the Pa
.6e side to the Attic this season after
hale oil anu whslebone. The steamer
Rads is the first to return. The bark
Thomas Pope is on the way down and is
.,nected here about the 18th inst.
Reda brought down in total $4,000 pounds
ofbone and 200 barrels of oil for the
pacific Steam Whaling company. The
Reda sailed July -. Seventy-tiVe
Hhales had been caught. While man
whO have been from childhood on terms
NJ familiarity with harpOons, bomb
iances, and other paraphernalia with
which leviathaus are hunted like aqua
tic game, say that the season is yet un-
Artain, landsmen believe that the pros
mats are good from what has already
been done and also from the fact that the
season had hardly opened when the
Beda sailed from the north. Whales APP
pear to have been plenty in the ice, but
many of them were where the ships
could not go. Hundreds are said to
have been seen, spOuting and thrashing
around. sight suggestive Of int rest to
landSmcn, though barren in Il CONNER
cisl way.
The eXasperating fact to the whale
men in tho present season is that about
as many whales are reported to have
been lost after being "struck" as found
their way to the try-pots. Why this
should be particularly eXasperating is
this: Whales average yield of about
one hundred barrels of oil each, and moi
far from eighteen hundred pounds OF
bone, With bone quoted at 81 per pound
and is likely to 60 higher if the season
fails, the loss Of one whale means Il loss
of several thousand dollars in bone
alone. The steam whalcr Thrasher lost
seven whales, the Bal@Da and Orca each
seven. One vessel reports having seen
many dead whales. The explanation OF
this il that the whales We're "struck,'
but the boat-steerers harpoon and per
haps bomb-lance were not fatal. When
a whale starts for the ice with boat
dragging after him, the speed is some
thing terrific. 1t becomes necessary to
cut loose when the sharptended boat
comes too near the pack. The leviathau
keeps on under tho ice, perhaps talk
ing the irons and line with him. When
he dies and drifts out again he receives
a title more forcible than elegant. The
whalers will take him under this title
so long as there is blubber, but the oil is
not so good.
There is little of the character of
woodchuck hunting in Arctic whaling,
which tho present season well illus
trates. Tho whale runs into the ice as
the woOdchuCk into a hole, and the
whaler has to wait for the game to come
out. When the Boda left, the ice haG
prevented the fleet getting further than
Point hope. Ordinarily, at the CORE.
spending date the fleet could have
reached Point Barrow. But all above
Point Hope is reported to have been
filled with great masses of grinding
pack-ice. The first OF the fleet arrived at
the ice April |. and at once attempted to
enter the pack on the west.
A steam whaler can go through four or
five feet of pack-ice, but when it grows
thicker the obstacle is serious. "Thr
fact is" said mariner this afternoon,
speaking Of the Arctic fleet, "that sail
vessels can generally do as well as the
steamers early in the season. But late
in the season the steamers have the adj
vantage, for they can wait and vet get
out" The whales were running up to
the ice some time before the Beda start
ed south. but just previous to her sailing
for several days the weather was thick
and the whalemen were hunting levia
thanS in a fog. Previous to that the
weather had been clear.
The vessels in the Arctic fleet for the
season Of 1881, going up the side OF the
land, are as follows: Beda, Balwna,
Bowhead, Orca, Mary and Helen, Mar
whal, Thrasher, Rainbow, j. Rowland,
Josephine, Young Phoenix, Ohio, North
ern Light, Fleetwing, IIidalgo, Ahra-
ham Barker, Mars, Napoleon, Mabel.
Eliza, Hunter, Belvidere, Caleb Eaton,
Sophia Johnson, Henrietta, Yokohama,
Atlantic, Bounding Billow, Mary and
Susan, STEAMBOAT, Francis F., Helen
Mar, Amethyst, Wandorer, st. Lucretia,
Gazelle, Pope, Coral, George and Susan,
and Ocean. No &C ,idrnts of any kind
are reported as having happened to any
of the vessels. 1t is remarked by one Of
the shippers, writing home, that the
weather has been as remarkable for
clearneSs this season rs il was for fog
last season. IL is considered doubtful
by some If whale has been caught
since the Bcda sailed for home. The
winter brought very cold weather, with
northcrly and nOrtheasterly winds, but
the ice was light in Behriug sea, be-
cause blown oil shore and destroyed al
most as fast as made. Therefore the ice
encountered was mostly spring ice. Tho
natives had poor success whaing. Only
one was caught by them after the fleet
sailed away last fall, and the prospect is
that the traders will be disappointed
this season.
Some of the steamers going north took
the eastern and some the western route.
Those which went to the west did not
get many, the most of them being dead
whales. The fleet all got through about
the same time. though early advices re-
ported the Gael, Coral, George and Su-
san and Ocean not yet arrived. The
EASTERN shore ileet got into the strait
about tho time the last running of
whales arrived. Ten of these ships were
reported clean and ten had twelve
whales, of which six were dead whales.
A whaling authority being asked to-day
what he thought the prospects are, said;
"The season is hardly open Yet. An
open season remains to date doubtful,
for there is much bad ice. No sure esti-
mate can be made of the fall catch,
have had advices that the ice docs not
lie fayorably for cast-shoro work. a
southerly wind might blow it out, but
don't know what to anticipate. The
catch il larger than it was last year to a
corresponding date, but not larger than
In some previous years. 1t is too early
10 predict. The ice outlook is not favor
able. San Francisco Bulletin.