epMPARATIVE VIEW. — BRITISH COLOXTES. 135 



the reduction of Quebec, the capture of whales, 

 «eals and morses, in this quarter by British subjects, 

 soon exceeded in extent any former fishery carried 

 on by the French *. The increase in the whale- 

 fishery of the New Englanders, at this period, was 

 rery rapid. In 1761 they employed 10 vessels of 

 about 100 tons burden eacli ; 50 m 1762, and 

 above 80 in 1763 ; in consequence of which, such 

 an increase in the importation of whalebone into 

 Britain took place^ as reduced the price of that ar- 

 ticle from 500/. to 350 1, jie?' ton f. For the en- 

 couragcm?nt of this fishery, the fins and oil of whales 

 -caught in the lliver St Lawrence and on the coasts 

 of Britisii America, were allowed to be imported 

 into Britain, on payment only of the " old subsidy," 

 directed by act 25th Car. II. c. 7, t, of Gs: pe?' 

 ton on oil, and 50^. j^^f' ^on on fins §. This encou- 

 ragement, added to local circumstances, \rhich were 

 convenient, had such an effect, that in 1767, (three 

 years afterwards), the Am.erican colonists employed 

 about 300 vessels, estimated at 60 tons, and 13 men 

 each, in the v/hale-fishery about the coasts of l^ew- 

 foundland, Labrador, and the Gulf of St Lawrence. 

 In the Gulf only, they killed 100 of the best whales 

 in about six weeks, and their success on other sta- 



* Ander. Com. a. n. 1763. ; and Scots Mag. vol. xxvi. p. l60. 



+ Anderson, a. d. 1763. ;{; 4th Geo. III. c. 29. 



§ Fins, as referring to the whale, is a term used in our acts 

 of Parliament, in place of whale-bone. 



