Dechne of American Whaling. iy 
1859. The date of opening the first oil well in Pennsyl- 
vania may be regarded as the day when the fate of the 
whale fishery was decided. Even in the face of the other 
unfavorable conditions, the fishery must certainly have 
prospered but for the discovery of petroleum. The 
population of the country was increasing; the people 
would have had light without much regard to the neces- 
sarily high prices of oil, and the market demand would 
undoubtedly have increased beyond the supply. At this 
critical time the Pennsylvania oil fields were discovered 
and at once a plentiful, and cheap illuminant was in the 
market as a competitor of the whale oils. As soon as the 
processes of refining were improved, the disagreeable 
and dangerous qualities were no longer a handicap to 
kerosene and it became a relentless rival of the other oils. 
The struggle for supremacy was fierce but short and 
ended in the only way that it could—in favor of the 
better, more easily obtained and then seemingly in- 
exhaustible kerosene. Sperm candles were dedicated to 
ornamental uses and whale oil lamps were discarded to 
become interesting relics for succeeding generations. 
But the encroachment of petroleum products on the 
domains formerly monopolized by whale oils was not to 
end with superseding the latter in their use as an illum- 
inant. Kerosene came rapidly into general use. Then 
lubricating oils began to be made from the residuum; and 
finally the utilization of the wax or paraffine in making 
candles and in other arts, robbed the whale products of 
their last strongholds in the markets of the world. 
Just after the introduction of petroleum oils, as if to 
make sure of the overthrow of whaling prosperity, the 
Civil War broke out. Always adversely affected by 
warfare, no industry was then less able to withstand the 
effects of war than was the whale fishery. A large 
proportion of the fleet was at sea. Many of the vessels 
were in the Pacific on voyages of three or four years 
