THE ORDER CETACEA. 203 



The whale trade has also been gradually shifting from 

 the ports in this country, which formerly enjoyed the 

 greatest share of the business. Previous to the year 1 790, 

 London was the principal port from whence the vessels 

 sailed, inasmuch as four times the number were sent 

 out from the Greenland Docks,* at Deptford, than from 

 any other place. Even in 1820 the metropolis of 

 England continued to send out about seventeen or eigh- 

 teen which were engaged in this trade; in 1824, when I 

 sailed, there were but four, the Neptune (my own ship), 

 belonging to Messrs. Benson and Hunter, of Shadwell, 

 the Dundee, the property of Messrs. Gale, with the 

 Rookwood, and another vessel (whose name I have 

 forgot, but I believe it was the Margaret), the property 

 of William Mellish, Esq.f At the present period I be- 

 lieve there are but two belonging to the same gentle- 

 man. Liverpool, in a similar manner, after having for 

 a considerable period carried on the trade to a very 

 considerable extent, has now entirely relinquished it. 

 Whitby, also, which sixty or seventy years ago was 

 largely engaged in it, now sends out only one, or at the 

 most two ships. We may now very properly consider 

 Hull as the principal whale-fishing port in Great Britain, 

 and it has been so since the commencement of the pre- 

 sent century. In 1830 that town sent out thirty-three 

 ships. Peterhead on the eastern coast of Scotland may 

 be ranked next to Hull, having sent out thirteen ships 

 in the same year. After it may be ranked Aberdeen, 

 Dundee, Leith, Kirkaldy, and Burntisland. In Peter- 

 head, and in fact most of the Scotch ports, the trade 



* They are now denominated the Commercial and East Country Docks, 

 and are situated at the end of the Lower Road, about three-quarters of a 

 mile from the town of Deptford. 



t The same gentleman whose life was recently attempted by a maniac, 



