40 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



"To this the lords of trade reply :* 'Ton may intimate in your letter to our Secretary of 22d 

 November last that the Whale fishery is reserved to the Crown by your Pateuts : as we can find no 

 such thing in your Commission, you will explain what you mean by it. ' Mulford is now in London, 

 and desires dispatch in the decision in regard to this matter, pending which the lords desire to know 

 whether dues have been paid by any one; if so, what amount has been paid, and to what purpose 

 this revenue has been applied. They close their letter with the following sentence, which would 

 hardly seeui open to any danger of misconstruction : ' Upon thin occasion we must observe to you, 

 that ire hopeyou trill give all due incovragement to that Trade.' Evidently the case of Mulford vs. Hunter 

 looks badly for the governor. Still, Hunter is loth to yield readily, and the discussion is further 

 prolonged. 



"It is now 1718. Governor Hunter, in his answer to the inquiries of their lordships, says 

 Commission was issued giving power ' Cognosceudi de Flotsam, Jetsoin, Lagon, Deodandis, &c.,' 

 follows ' et de Piscibus Itegalibus Sturgeonibus, Balenis Ccetis Porpetiis Delphinis Eeggis. &<.' 

 In regard to the income, he again writes that it is inconsiderable; that only the danger of being 

 accused of giving up the Crown's right would have led him to write about it. In amount, it was 

 not 20 per annum (corroboratory of Mulford's assertion of its decline), and as the fish had left 

 this coast, he should not further trouble them about it. Up to the present time all but Mulford 

 had paid and continued to pay. The subject appears to have been finally referred to the attorney- 

 general, and the governor says (1719), waiting his opinion, he has surceased all demands till it 

 comes. The question must have been left in a state of considerable mistiness, however, for in 1720 

 Governor Burnett informs the lords, in a letter which indicates a satisfied feeling of compromise 

 between official dignity and the requirements of the trade, that he remits the 5 per centum on the 

 whale fishery, but asserts the King's rights by still requiring licenses, though in ' so doing he 

 neglects his own profit,' ; and this,' he adds, 'has a good effect on the country.' Under his admin- 

 istration the act for the encouragement of the whale fishery was renewed." t 



4. BOAT WHALING IN TSE PRESENT CENTURY. 



Within the present century shore whaling has been prosecuted to some extent at .various 

 points on the Atlantic coast, from Maine to South Carolina. The business has been profitable at 

 Provincetown, Mass., and at Beaufort, N. C. At the former place during the spring of 1880, forty- 

 eight whales, valued at $14,037, were captured; at the latter place the average annual catch is 

 four whales, valued at $4,500. The total value of the shore whaling on the entire coast in 1880 

 reached about $18,000, which is far above the average year's work. We are indebted to Mr. Earll 

 for facts about .this fishery at Maine, and the southern North Carolina coast, and to Captain 

 Atwood for an account of the business at Provincetown. 



COAST OF MAINE. 



Shore-whaling in the vicinity of Tremout began about 1840. Mr. Benjamin Beaver and a 

 small crew of men caught three or more whales annually for about twenty years, but gave up the 

 business in 1860. No more whales were taken from this time till the spring of 1880, when one 

 was taken and brought into Bass Harbor, and yielded 1,200 gallons of oil, but no bone of value. 



*N. Y. Col. Eec., v, p. 510. 



t ALEXANDER STARBUCK: Hist. Am. Whale Fishery, in U. S. Fish Com. Report, 1875-76. 



