Year: 1861

Whaling.


| Experienced whalers have long entertained the
opinion that whaling must gradually decrease for
want OF whales. Thirty years ago sperm whales
were plentiful in the Atlantic Ocean, between the
parallels of fifty degrees North and thirty South,
but now ships may cruise months In the Atlantic
without seeing n spout. True there are still few
small vessels which, after a year or two, manage
| to pick up hundred or two barrels each among
the West India Islands or off the West Coast of
Africa but, as whaling ground, the Atlantic
may be considered cut up. The same is true of
Japan, once the most productive whaling ground
In the world. Both Off-shore and in-shore, thirty
years ago, the coasts of Japan were well supplied
with sperm whales of great fatness. In q couple
of seasons at most, any ship with ordinary perse-
| veranee could pick up voyage. season COM
menced in May and ended the latter part of August
| the weather during the rest Of the year was
regarded then unfit for whaling in consequence of
severe storms and dense fog but recently learn
| ships have cruised there most of the year. When
| this ground was first discovered, ships would lie
with their tOpsails the caps for weeks at time
with wha.as always 10 sight. When one fare was
nearly disposed of couple of boats would be sent
after large whale and would have little difficulty
| in turning him up and bringing him alongside.
Thus ship would sometimes roll in thousand bar
rels in few weeks without cruising dozen miles.
We have heard it stated that so plentiful were the
whales and easily turned up, that several ships
would not take anything but head-matter. That
is, they rejected body bubber altogether, because
its oil was less valuable than that from the head
But all this is now changed, the coasts of Japan
nearly as bare of whales as those of the Allan
tic.


The seas in the vicinity of the Sychelle Islands
were about the same time famous for school whales
which, when one of them was struck, would huddle
together like flock of sheep, thus affording boats
q chance to kill as many as they pleased We
have often heard of fifteen school whales having
been killed at single lowering as many as a ship
could take care of to try out before the blubber
blasted. 1t not uncommon to kill, as long
as the whales would remain, without reference to
being able to use them The excitement of success
full whaling, like that Of successful war, is too
potent to be restrained within reasonable bounds
We have little doubt that for several years after
the discovery of the Sychelle and Japan whaling
grounds, as many whales were killed for mere spot
as for oil. Now Sychele, like Japan, is considered
cut up. The same is true of nearly all the great
sperm whaling grounds of twenty or thirty years
ago. If fOur-boat ship can pick up two thousand
barrels of sperm oil in four years, she is considered
to have made an excellent voyage. New Zealand.
New Holland, the West Coast Of North and South
America, the Australasian, and East Indian seas,
from Java Head to Japan, all at one time good
sperm whaling grounds at various seasons of the
year, are now nearly deserted. And if by chance a
few are seen, they generally so wild that it is
difficult for the boats to get up to them to fasten
Schools now rarely heaye-to when one of their
number is struck but take off to windward head out


After sperm whaling declined, right whaling was
equally successful for several years but now that
appears to be gradually on the wane also. About
forty years age the English and Scotch had many
vessels employed in Davis Straits and Greenland,
whaling, and by the way of encouragement they
received bounties from the Government but, like
hall hacE EaTIa az Co.
There still q few vessels which 90 North every
year and manage to pick up fair voyages ; these,
however, do not confne themselves to whaling
they capture seals, or anything else that can be
converted into oil. The whales are too scarce and
shy to be relied on exclusively for a cargo


1t seems evident that either the whales do not
breed as fast they killed, or that they have
found feeding grounds where they are not disturbed
We are inclined to the opinion that they are killed
faster than they multiply, for we cannot trace upon
the map of the globe any sea which has not been
explored by whalers, except the Polar Seas which
have yet to be discovered.


We have heard several theories about the time
required to produce whale, but none of them are
satisfactory. Some men contend that whales calve
every year, because they enter well known Bays at
certain times for that purpose; but, previous to
that period, nothing can be known. The analogy
between an elephant and a whale, taking their
respective sizes into consideration is the only mode
by which an approximation might be inferred about
the time whale requires to produces calf Those
who have examined large whales minutely for the
purpose of asceraining their age, agree that they
have discovered marks upon the teeth and jaws of
sperm whales which indicated that they were fire
or sir hundred years old! We might write volume
upon this point without enightening any one but
one fact is real, and that is-whales, of all kinds
are very scarce in every sea where they were very
plentiful fifty years ago.-Boston Commercial Bul-
Letin.