ALTERATIONS IN THE MODE OF FISHING. 171) 



in the immediate vicinity of the fishing estrv]:^isli- 

 ments, the boats were sent out of the hays, the iisli 

 captured at sea, towed into the harbour, stripped of 

 the fat, and the blubber boiled as formerly * ; but as 

 the whales increased their distance, this plan of pro- 

 cedure became inconvenient ; so that tlje ships be- 

 gan to cruise about the sea |, to kill the whales 

 wherever they found them, to take on board the 

 blubber, and only occasionally to enter a port for 

 the convenience of making off, or awaiting, when 

 the weather was unfavourable for lishing, an appro- 

 priate change. 



The different operations connected with the fish- 

 ery being now more tedious, so far from having oc- 

 casion for empty ships for carrying away the super- 

 abundant produce t, it was a matter of difficulty 

 and uncertainty tlie procuring a cargo at all ; and 

 with the most prosperous issue, there was not suffi- 

 cient time for landing tlie cargo and extracting the 

 oil ^ : the blubber was, tlierefore, merely packed in 

 casks and conveyed home, where the remaining o- 

 perations of extracting the oil, and cleaning and 

 preparing the whalebone, were completed. Hence 

 the various buildings which had been erected at 

 a great cxpencc became ])errcctly useless ; the cop- 



u 2 



* Besdiryviniv, Sec. vol. i. p. ,"1. t IcJer.i, p. SO. 



t IdeiTi, vol. i. p. 29 § Idem, p. "0. 



