48 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



southern or spermaceti whale fishery, and light ves- 

 sels generally, inasmuch as the latter would not be suf- 

 ficiently strong to resist the blows it receives from the 

 ice. 



Captain Scoresby recommends for this trade the em- 

 ployment of a vessel of the dimensions of 350 tons re- 

 gister as the most eligible, but generally the tonnage 

 varies from 250 to 300. The Neptune of London, the 

 vessel in which I sailed, was 291 ; a ship of 350 tons is 

 occasionally filled (but this is an event that has rarely 

 happened for several years, and is always unlooked for), 

 the number of men required for its navigation, being 

 likewise necessary for manning the boats employed in 

 the fishery, and consequently could not well be reduced 

 in a much smaller vessel. A larger tonnage than the 

 one just mentioned is scarcely ever filled, and involves 

 the owners in useless extra expense. The Dutch mer- 

 chants are of opinion that the vessels destined for this 

 employment should be at least a hundred and twelve feet 

 long, twenty-nine broad, and twelve deep, carrying 

 seven boats, and from forty to fifty seamen. 



The whale ships destined for Greenland generally 

 leave their respective ports about the end of March or 

 commencement of April, but those intended for Davis's 

 Straits towards the end of February, or early in March, 

 and proceed either to the Shetland or Orkney Islands, 

 where they receive their complement of men, one-half 

 of which are engaged from one of these counties.* The 

 latest period of their arrival in the Polar Seas is the 

 latter end of April, and there being no equatorial line to 

 cross, as in the southern latitudes, the Greenland sea- 



* The Orkney and Shetland Isles are the extreme northernmost coun- 

 ties of Scotland. 



