DESTRUCTION OF FISH. 103 
What special functions, besides his uses to man, are assigned 
to the whale in the economy of nature, we do not know; but 
some considerations, suggested by the character of the food upon 
which certain species subsist, deserve to be specially noticed. 
None of the great mammals grouped under the general name of 
whale are rapacious. They all live upon small organisms, and 
the most numerous species feed almost wholly upon the soft 
gelatinous mollusks in which the sea abounds in all latitudes. 
We cannot calculate even approximately the number of the 
whales, or the quantity of organic nutriment consumed by an 
individual, and of course we can form no estimate of the total 
amount of animal matter withdrawn by them, in a given period, 
from the waters of the sea. It is certain, however, that it must 
have been enormous when they were more abundant, and that 
it is still very considerable. In 1846 the United States had six 
hundred and seventy-eight whaling ships chiefly employed in 
the Pacific, and the product of the American whale fishery for 
the year ending June Ist, 1860, was seven millions and a half 
of dollars.* The mere bulk of the whales destroyed in a single 
* In consequence of the great scarcity of the whale, the use of coal-gas for 
illumination, the substitution of other fatty and oleaginous substances, such 
as lard, palm-oil, and petroleum for right-whaile oil and spermaceti, the whale 
fishery has rapidly fallen off within a few years. The great supply of petroleum, 
which is much used for lubricating machinery as well as for numerous other 
purposes, has produced a more perceptible effect on the whale fishery than 
any other single circumstance. According to Bigelow, Les Liats- Unis en 1863, 
p. 346, the American whaling fleet was diminished by 29 in 1858, 57 in 1860, 
94 in 1861, and 65 in 1862. The number of American ships employed in that 
fishery in 1862 was 353. In 1868, the American whaling fleet was reduced to 
223. The product of the whale fishery in that year was 1,485,000 gallons of 
sperm oil, 2,065,612 gallons of train oil, and 901,000 pounds of whalebone. The 
yield of the two species of whale is about the same, being estimated at from 
4,000 to 5,000 gallons for each fish. Taking the average at 4,500 gallons, the 
American whalers must have captured 789 whales, besides, doubtless, many 
which were killed or mortally wounded and not secured. The returns for the 
year are valued at about five million and a half dollars. Mr. Cutts, from a 
report by whom most of the above facts are taken, estimates the annual value 
of the ‘‘ products of the sea” at $90,000,000. 
According to the New Bedford Standard, the American whalers nnmbered 
