392 WHALE-FISHERy. 



During the above four years, the amouut of the 

 <'argoes of the British Greenland whale-fishing ships, 

 (consisting of 376 sail, repeated voyages included,) 

 was 3508 vdiales, which produced 33,070 tons of 

 oil, and 1682 tons of whalebone. At the same 

 time, 210 ships employed in the Davis' Straits 

 fishery, procured 1522 whales, yielding 21,438 tons 

 of oil, and 1015 tons of whale-fins. 



It seems worthy of remark, that the whales 

 caught near Spitzbergen, afforded a larger propor- 

 tion of whalebone, compared with the quantity of 

 oil, than the fish of Davis' Straits ; the Greenland 

 fish yielding a ton of fins for every 1 9^ tons of oil, 

 and the Davis' Straits fish a ton of fins for every 

 21 tons of oil. It is remarkable that this should 

 have been the case, when we consider that small 

 fish afford less whalebone than large fish, in pro- 

 portion to their produce in oil, and yet the Green- 

 land fish which, on the average of four years, were 

 inuch smaller than those caught in Davis' Straits, 

 have produced the largest proportion of whalebone. 

 The whales taken at the Greenland fishery in four 

 years, only average 9^ tons of oil each, but those 

 caught at Davis' Straits average 14 tons. It wovdd 

 therefore appear, that the large whales caught near 

 Spitzbergen are much stouter than those taken in 

 Davis' Straits, and afford so much greater a propor- 

 tion of fins, as more than compensates for the defi^ 

 ciency in the sm^U whales. 



