1781.] CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. gl 



The Danes resumed the Greenland whale-fishery 

 in the year 1775 *. 



Whales having been discovered in various regions 

 of the globe, and other establishments having been 

 made besides the northern fisheries, all of which, in 

 some degree, received the encouragement of the 

 British Legislature, though not in the same pro- 

 portion ; and the different fisheries being subject 

 to different regulations, under different acts of 

 Parliament, it was found necessary to distinguish 

 between them, and draw a line of separation. Ac- 

 cordingly, the latitude of 59 ^^ 30' north was fixed 

 as the southern limit of the Greenland seas ; which 

 seas, therefore, include the whole of the navigation 

 north of this parallel, contained between the Ame- 

 rican coast on the west, and the European and Asi- 

 atic coasts on the east and north f . 



The reduction of the bounty to 30s. per ton from 

 the year 1777 to 1781 inclusive, was found to pro- 

 duce such a remarkable diminution in the number of 

 ships employed in the northern whale-fisheries, that 

 it was deemed necessary to increase it again to 40s., 

 instead of reducing it still further to 2lOs. per ton, 

 as was specified in a former act of Parliament. 

 Thus the number of ships fitted out of Britain in 

 the year 1775, was 105 sail, and the following year, 



VOL. II. F 



* Ency. ]ir' . Art. Celology. t 20th Gqo, III. c. 60. 



