Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-08-31
WHALING IN NEW SEAS.
A Prospecting Cruise In the Ant
arctic Ocean.
Nsw GroaDds to BE 9ooehs ON A.
count Of the Growing Scarcity
u Whalsbons In Our
Markets.

The bark Gayhead, Of this city, Is o,
her way to the southern seas on an e,
petition the like of which has not bee
undertaken since 1871, says tho Sa
Francisco Chronicle.
In that year the British man-of-wa
challenger was sent on an exploratio,
TO tho Antarctic to ascertain whethe
or not there was field there for tn
catch OF whales, and she returned will
an adverse report.
Since that date many thousand yes
sells have doubled Cape Horn and FIRE
quently have been driven many degree.
further south than was absolutely
necessary to make the trip. invariably
they have reported . number Of school.
OF whales encountered on their voy
ages.
BY reason Of these reports the
whalers Of England and America have
felt obliged to doubt the accuracy OF
the Challenger's report, but in the
twenty-five years which have ELAPSED
since then no one has had the daring
or enterprise to undertake q personal
survey Of the waters until the present
time.
Gin October last the Gayhead wa
started from New Bedford with in.
structions to spend q couple of years In
the Antarctic, where she Is to skirt the
Ice foe rs far south 90 she can possibly
reach. She is to fish for whales and
see II new hunting ground cannot be
opened to commerce. The Gayhesd
will extend her voyage over what is
called the New Bedford whaling cruise.
that ordinarily lasts one year, but that
Will keep her out about three years this
time.
The route calls her to pass st. Helena
and skirt Graham's land, from where
sho will sail for Australian waters and
then go north, taking in the Japanese
waters, Behring sea and the Arctic
ocean San Francisco will be reached
about October, 1894.
The fact OF the matter, and the one
point that has caused this extended ex.
ploration trip of the Gayhead, is that
the hunting grounds in the north are
giving out very rapidly, and the
whalers have virtually ceased fishing
IN Baffin's bay, Davis strait and in the
spitzbergen whaling ground. The
right" and "bowhead" whales, which
are more desirable on account of the
bone they produce, are virtually ex.
tinct in these waters, and the whaling
fieet now push on to Behrinp sea.
Okhotsk sea, and the Arctic proper.
1t is fact that whalebone and ivory
sre two animal products which art or
science have not been able to repro.
luce. In the good days of plenty
sold at one dollar and a
half pound; its price to-day is six dol
ars. That gives fair idea Of how the
'upply has diminished in the last ten
,ears.
Little Is known of the waters south
u seventy degrees south as compared
o the knowledge had Of the waters
forth OF latitude seventy degrees
lorth. Next to nothing is known re-
'arding tho Antarctic ocean, and the
lope Is entertained that the present ,
expedition will develop q new field to .
eplace the old one that is dying out.
At the present time an English and :
cotch company is building three YES ,
els at Dundee for the purpose of send. ,
'g them into the Antarctic for whales. !
Is not unlikely, therefore, that in a ;
sw years the whaling feet that sail. #.
ut OF this port will steer south after :
'aving the Hawaiian grounds, instead =
going north, as they do at present. .