148 WHALING 



finds no explanation of the matter. Says he : ''Another singular 

 feature connected with the whale-fishery is the sudden coming 

 and going of the objects of pursuit. According to Davis, their 

 appearance and disappearance would seem somewhat periodical, 

 as though perhaps certain phases of the moon were better than 

 others for the prosecution of the fishery. At such times whales 

 appear and are plenty, and this season will be followed by a 

 period in which none will be in sight." 



The United States Exploring Expedition during the years 

 1838 to 1842 made extensive study of the movements of ocean 

 currents that carry from place to place the food on which whales 

 live, thus, of course, explaining the presence or absence of the 

 whales themselves. But, even overlooking certain startling 

 mistakes in their information, it must be admitted that their 

 findings never were of much use to the whalemen. The man of 

 action is seldom a man of books, and the old whalers believed 

 far more in their own experiences than in the speculations of 

 naturalists, well founded or ill. It was beyond all doubt that 

 in the eddies around capes and islands whales and their foods — 

 like other marine life — were generally plentiful. Hence the 

 frequency with which the names of islands occur in the names of 

 whaling grounds. This the whalemen knew and profited by. 

 (But even this does not explain the off-shore grounds, that 

 enormous stretch of the open Pacific in latitude 5° to 10° south 

 and longitude 105° to 125° west.) 



With infinite labour one Lieutenant M. F. Maury, U. S. N. 

 in 1850 made an elaborate chart of the world's v/haling grounds. 

 On this he showed, by means of a pen-and-ink whale (spout- 

 ing to show whether he was right or sperm) in each square of 

 five degrees latitude and longitude, where whales were plenti- 

 ful and where they were only occasional, and at what season 

 of the year. Probably very few master whalemen owned or fol- 

 lowed this chart, however, though many of them kept strict 

 record of what whales they saw and of those seen by other 

 captains — when business rivalry did not interfere with the 

 gathering of such information. 



Skill and good judgment in handling both whales and crews un- 



