92 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
with sloops of thirty to forty tons going to the “South- 
ward,’’ and later to the Grand Banks. By 1850 ships of 
400 to 500 tons were whaling in the Arctic beyond Bering 
Strait. Between these two dates many grounds were 
frequented, soon exhausted and abandoned for others. 
The principal whaling grounds have been taken from 
Scammon as follows: For sperm whales in the Atlantic 
the order of occupation was approximately as follows: 
Carolina coasts, Bahamas, West Indies, Gulf of Mexico, 
Caribbean Sea, Azores, Cape Verde Islands, and the 
coast of Africa. In the Pacific Ocean the order was: 
South American coast—Chili and Peru, west to Juan 
Fernandez Island and the Galapagos group, known as the 
on-shore ground; off-shore ground, lying between 
longitudes 90° and 120° west and latitudes 5° and 10° 
south; about the different groups of islands, as the Sand- 
wich Islands, the Fiji, Society and Navigator groups; 
in the China Sea and along the Japan coasts; the Cali- 
fornia coast, and the northwest coast of America. In 
the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, mouth of the Red Sea, 
Java, Malacca Straits, and into the Pacific about Austra- 
lia, Tasmania and New Zealand. Practically all these 
sperm whaling grounds are in warm latitudes, either 
tropical or temperate, while the right whaling grounds 
will be seen to lie generally in colder regions. The north- 
ern grounds for right whales included the Atlantic coast. 
from Newfoundland to the Bahamas, Davis Straits, 
the coast of Greenland, about Spitzbergen, Baffin’s 
Bay and Hudson’s Bay. In the Pacific, the northwest 
coast of America, including Bering Sea, the coast of 
Kamtchatka, in Okhotsk Sea, Japan Sea, and through 
Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean were the places most 
frequented. The southern grounds included, in the Atlan- 
tic, the Brazil Banks, the coast of Africa, the coast of 
Patagonia, and about the various island groups, as the 
41 Scammon, p. 214-215. 
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