154 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



ami two, after refitting for the north, sailed to cruise and touch at the islands in the .spring. The high rate offered 

 for grain freights absorhed all the available ships. The whaler Minerva, saved from the wreck of 1871, was bought 

 by two of our merchants, and loaded with oil for home. Also the Lagoda and Tamerlane took freight for home. 



Sperm oil has been in good demand during the year. The import was 45,000 barrels, 5,000 to 7,000 barrels more 

 than was anticipated. We consumed the entire amount, and drew on stock at the commencement of the year foi 

 3,000 barrels. Yet there was a falling otf of 7,000 barrels in the consumption as compared with the previous year. 

 The price opened high at $1.60, and during the summer declined to 1.35, when in the fall it strengthened to $1.50, 

 where it btood at the opening of this year. A few sales were reported at $1.52-J $1.55. The consumption has been 

 about equally divided between home and foreign demand, and the fall off has been in this country, probably induced 

 by the abundance and low price of lard oil. With the oil caught and at home we have promise of a good supply 

 this year. 



Messrs. Bowes, Game & Co.'s Annual Market Report, reports the importation of sperm oil into the United King- 

 dom in 1872 at 3,423 tons, against 3,811 tons in 1871. During the demand from January to April the price advanced 

 from 91 to 100, and when that fell off it declined in September to 85. The consumption was 3,595 tuns in 1872, 

 against 3,823 tuns in 1871. The stock on hand January 1, 1873, was 609 tuns against 849 tuns January 1, 1872. The 

 consumption fell off in 1872 228 tuns, and the stock to open the year with was reduced 180 tons. Messrs. Maclean, 

 Maris & Co.'s circular shows the imports from the colonies in 1872 to be 722 tuns, being nearly one-half of the import 

 of the United States. 



Whale oil has been in moderate demand with small supply. The import was very small, 31,075 barrels, conse- 

 quent upon the loss of the Arctie fleet in the fall of 1871. Only two right whalers returned during the year, and the 

 import was little more than one-third that of the previous year, when it was 75,000 barrels. The supply was 61,000 

 barrels whale, and consumption 45,000 barrels, against 80,000 barrels in 1871. The consumption of whale oil has not 

 been reduced by seal oil, for none has come here from the provinces, nor from fish oils, for the catch has been a small 

 one, not over two-thirds that of previous years, but rather from lard and petroleum, which have been plenty, good, 

 and cheap. 



The year opened at 73 cents for Arctic oil, and eased during the summer to 66 68 cents, when humpback oil 

 arrived in large quantities, and was taken in preference, because of its lower cost, say 60 62^ cents. Since the 

 Boston fire, in which 8,000 barrels fish oil were lost, causing tanners to buy some of our oil, rather better figures were 

 obtained closing at 68 cents for Arctic, and a small stock of 16,500 barrels of all kinds. There was but little whale 

 oil exported in 1872, say 1,528 barrels. 



The London circulars call the import of whale oil there 80 tuns, and the stock on hand January 1, 1873, 47 tuns. 

 Also, imports of seal oil there 822 tuns, and the stock on hand January 1, 1873, 152 tuns. 



Whalebone was in good supply at the opening of the year, about 285,000 pounds; but with little to come during 

 the year, or until the new Arctic arrivals late in the year, and which amounted to 132,000 pounds. Only about 60,00(1 

 pounds came from all other sources, including South Sea and Cumberland. Small sales were made early in the year, 

 at ^1.90 per pound and then it declined to $1.75 and $1.50 by May, and in June it was sold at $1, gold, to $1.20, cur- 

 rency, since which it has been steady at $1.15 $1.20, closing the year at $1.18 for old. The first MX months the 

 sales were about 50,000 pounds, but when prices got down to $1, gold, the sales for the remaining s^x months were 

 about 200,000 pounds, of which consumption of 250,000 pounds about 180,000 pounds were exported. A circular issued 

 by J. A. Sevey, of Boston, a large bone-cutter, shows that he lost by being burnt out in the Boston fire some 10,000 

 pounds of bone, but was at work again in twenty-two days cutting bone with tools patented by him, and which he 

 claims are a great improvement on the old method of cutting. Some 60,000 pounds of bone were brought into San 

 Francisco last fall, which was picked up from the wrecked whalers or traded for with the natives. 



London circulars, aforesaid, report the importations-including the catch of Davis Strait and Greenland whalers, 

 as 90 tons, against 101 tons iu 1871. Stock in London, 357 tons, against 56 tons in 1871. Consumption 111 tons, 

 against 91 tons in 1871, 107 tons in 1870, and 122 tons iu 1809. The import of humpback bone was 22 tons, and the 

 stock on hand January 1, 1873, was 27 tons. 



TKADK KKVIEW FOI! 1S7U 



Review of the whale, fishery for 1873. The opening paragraph of our last year's review might be copied and would 

 be equally appropriate in commencing our present, for it has been a year starting with a small fleet, steadily reducing 

 through the year by sales and losses of vessels, wflh moderate catches, meager net results, no change of purpose to 

 sell whalers now here, and no new signs of encouragement in the business. A proposition for the sale of a whaler in 

 more tempting than a proposal to fit one. Of the nineteen whalers in the port of New Bedford January 1, 1873, four 

 were sold, live fitted for whaling, and ten still remain iu port; of the seven at New London January 1, 1873, one has 

 been sold and broken up, and the remaining six are still for sale. Of the eleven whalers now in this port that arrived 

 in l-<7.!, six are. for sale; and of the twenty-one whalers now wintering here not over seven are likely to be fitted. 

 Of forty whalers to arrive in 1874 probably about thirty will be sent to sea again. 



The striking features in the business have been the steadiness of prices during the year, except during the, panic, 

 the absence of many good catches of oil in sperm and Arctic whaling, the good success in humpbacking in Panama 

 Bay and coast of Africa, the loss of three whalers in Hudson Bay and Cumberland Inlet, and immunity from disas- 

 ter in the Arctic Ocean, not a ship being lost or seriously damaged. 



Our present fleet is 171, against 203 a year ago, 218 in 1-C.', and 288 in 1871. The 15 per cent, reduction which 

 has been going on for three years, and which a year ago we ventured to think would relieve us of an anxiety to 



