Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1894-03-23
WHALING IN NEW SEAS.
A Prospecting Cruise in the Ant
arctic Ocean.
New Grounds to Ee Sou~ht on Ac
count %: the Growing Scarcity
OF Wha,ebcrc In Oar
Markets.

The bark Gayhead, Of this city. is on
her way to the southern seas on an OK,
petition the like of which has not been
undertaken since 1871, says the San
Francisco Chronicle.
In that year the British ma,-of-war
Challenger was sent Oh an exploration
10 the Antarctic to ascertain whether
or not there was field there FOR the
catch Of whales, and she retained with
an adverse report.
Since that date many Thousand ves-
sells have doubled Cape Horn and fire.
quently have been driven many degrees
further south than was absolutely
necessary to make the trip. Invariably
they have reported n number Of schools
ages.
BY reason Of thcce reports tho
whalcrs of England and America have
felt Obliged to doubt the accuracy Of
the Challenrcr's report, hat in the
twenty-five years which have elapsed
since then no one has had the daring
or enterprise to undertake a perSonal
survey of the waters until the present
time.
In October last the Gayhead was
started from. New Bedford with in
structions to spend couple of years in
the Antarctic. where she is to skirt the
ice foe rs far south as she ca possibly
reach. She is to fish for whales and
see Il new hunting ground cannot be
0nNna6 n Tha Hn1hoo1
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 laud, from where
she 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 Gayhcad, is that
the hunting grounds in the north are
giving out very rapidly. and the
whalers have virtually ceased fishing
In Bafin's bay. Davis strait and In the
Spitzbergen whaling ground. The
right" and "bowhead" whales. which
are more desirable on account ct the
bone they produce. arc virtually ex-
tinct in these waters. and the whaling
1ect now push GA to Behrinr sea,
Okhotsli sea, and the Arctic proper.
&c a fact thu NH Ia ~ ;-.,v~~
are two animal products which art or
science have not been able to repro
duce. In the good days of plenty
whalebone sold at one dollar and a
half pound: its price to-day is six dol
lars. That gives fair idea Of how tie
supply has diminished in the last ten
years.
Of seventy degrees south as compared
To the knowledge had Of the waters
north OF latitude seventy degrees
north. Next to nothing ia known re-
garding the Antarctic ocean. and the
hope is entertained that the PRESENT
expedition will devotion new fold to
replace the old one that IT, dying out
At the present tirne an English and
Scotch company is building three YES
sells at Dundee for tho purpose OF sc I'D
ing them into the Antarctic for whales.
It is not unlikely, therefore, that in a
few years the whaling fleet that sails
out of this port will steer south after
leaving the Hawaiian grounds, instead
of going north, as they do Mt present