i02 WHALE-FISHEllV. 



ferent nations, of the niuneious bays and harbours 

 in Spitzbergcn, wliich were convenient as fishing- 

 stations ; the first choice and greatest proportion of 

 which were allowed to the English. 



By this time, the English alone had discovered 

 the bays and harbours along the west coast of Spitz- 

 bergcn, and the land to the northward of 80° ; 

 AVitches Island, and athers as far north as 79° ; 

 Hope Island, Edges Island, and various others to 

 the eastward ^^ 



A second bad fishing voyage having been made 

 by the united English Company, they were inducecl 

 to relinquish the trade. Four members of the 

 Russia Company then took it up on their own ac- 

 count, and sent out seven ships in 1620, eight 

 ships in 1621, and nine in 1622, which procured in 

 the three years 3100 tons of oil ; but they had in- 

 different or l)ad success the year afterwards, and the 

 produce of tlie whales, on account of the great 

 quantity imported by the Dutch, becoming less va- 

 luable, they likewise abandoned the speculation. 



At the time the fishery was jn its most flourish- 

 ing state, when the Dutch fished with such success 



* Purclias's Pilgrimes, vol. iii. p. 462,-473. — Thus it appears 

 tliat the English, mid not the Dutch, as is often believed, were 

 the explorers and survejors of the whole, or greater part of 

 Spitzbergen, and the adjacent islands ; the principal exami- 

 nation of this country by the Dutch, which, indeed, consisted 

 only of a part of the west coast, liaving been performed, on its 

 'first discovery, bj Barentz and Heeniskerke. 



