50 
WHALES AND WHALE FISHERIES OF THE NORTH PACIFIC. 
BY 
WILLIAM WATSON WOOLLEN. 
Captain George Vancouver, under a Commission from the Government 
of Great Britain, in 1792, 1793 and 1794, explored the Northwest Coast of 
America from north latitude 30° to north latitude 60°, in a search for 
the Strait of Anian, afterwards known as the North West Passage. For a 
number of years I have been making a study of his explorations, and in 
doing so have made five yoyages to Alaska, the fourth of which extended to 
the head of Cook Inlet in north latitude 61°. The following paper is based 
on observations made while making those voyages, supplemented by a study 
of various authorities upon the subject of whales. 
On the 7th of April, 1792, Vancouver reached latitude 35°25’, longitude 
217°24’, where he found himself in the midst of immense numbers of the 
sea blubber of the species Medusa Villilia. The surface of the ocean, so far 
as the eye could reach, was covered with these creatures in such abundance 
that even a pea could hardly be dropped clear of them. In the afternoon 
his ship passed within a few yards of about twenty whales of the anvil 
headed or spermaceti species playing in the water. His conclusion was, 
that these whales were induced to resort hither to feed upon the immense 
number of the Medusa, with which the region abounded. 
On Monday, the 25th of June, he had reached a point in the Strait of 
Georgia beyond the present site of the City of Vancouver. In his record 
of that day, he says: “In the course of the forenoon a great number of 
whales were playing about in every direction; and though we had been 
frequently visited by these animals in this inland navigation, there seemed 
more about us now than the whole of those we had before seen, if collected 
together.” He also says, “That in sailing from Desolation Sound to Menzies 
Bay, numberless whales, enjoying the season, were playing about the ship 
in every direction.” These quotations from Vancouver’s Journal, and 
many others that might be made, show the great abundance of whales 
that were to be found in the North Pacific Ocean a century and a half 
ago and how tame they were at that time. 
The first of these animals that I have had the privilege of seeing was 
that of a dead one which was brought from the East to Indianapolis, 
many years ago on two open flat cars, for exhibition. The next one was 
seen July 11, 1911, sporting in the Strait of Georgia, between Vancouver 
and Active Pass. After that I saw many of them, singly and in pairs, but 
I have never seen a “school” of them. I saw a Beluga, or white whale, 
near to Kodiak, October 1, 1914. On my return trip of that voyage I formed 
the acquaintance of Alfred Hauger, an intelligent man, who had long been 
engaged in whale fishing, and from him gained much information about 
whales and whale fishing. The following are the whales which he said are 
found on the Northwest Pacific Coast: Right Whale, Bowhead Whale, 
Sulphur Bottom Whale, Fin Whale, California Gray Whale, Sperm Whale, 
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