ENGLAND'S STRUGGLES 43 



of those things that are pleasant to look back upon after an 

 interval of many years, for he wrote blithely and without ani- 

 mosity, but he would have made, at the best, a very poor re- 

 cruiting agent for the whaling fleet. 



Meanwhile, the first danger sign had appeared : coal gas was 

 being substituted for oil gas. In vain did the champions of oil 

 gas declare its great superiority over coal gas; the newer fuel 

 had come to stay — at least until it should be superseded by a 

 still newer one. Nor could record catches or record cargoes 

 gainsay the fact that the actual whale hunting was each year 

 increasingly difficult. The invention of the gun harpoon was 

 destined to go far toward surmounting this difficulty, but whale- 

 men were slow to accept it, and the Greenland fishery con- 

 tinued to decline. 



