110 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
though with many fluctuations, from about 65,000 
barrels to 12,985 barrels in 1905. The exports which in 
1865 amounted to 20,000 barrels, have not exceeded 
2,000 barrels in any year since 1892, and since 1900 only 
one year, 1902 with 470 barrels, has been marked by any 
foreign shipment of sperm oil. Whale oil therefore has 
largely lost both home and foreign markets, while sperm 
oil has ceased to rank as an article of export. The small 
annual yield of the latter is almost entirely consumed in 
the United States. 
Whalebone presents a marked contrast to the declin- 
ing trade in oils. True it is that the annual yield of 
bone at present is far below the figures for the years 
during the middle of the last century. But with the 
failing of the whale fishery, bone has become the chief 
product. Year by year its price has risen as the supply 
has fallen off, and the demand has continued. The 
foreign market still continues to be the most important, 
rather more than half the bone being sent to European 
ports, chiefly France, Germany and Great Britain. 
Whalebone alone remains as an important article of 
commerce—on the demand for bone depends almost 
entirely the future of trade in whale products. A recent 
report from the London ‘‘Times” (Nov. 1, 1906) states 
that the price of whalebone in the London market has 
gone up to seven dollars per pound as the result of the 
failure of the British fishery. The Dundee whalers could 
not reach the whaling grounds, in the Davis Strait and 
Greenland regions, because of the presence of pack ice. 
This high price will undoubtedly stimulate the foreign 
shipments of bone from this country. 
Whaling was beneficial in its prosperity not alone to the 
people who invested directly in the fishing enterprises. 
The refining and manufacturing of oils offered profitable 
employment for capital and gave work to many hundreds 
of workmen during the days of its greatest development. 
The manufacture of sperm candles was one of the 
