268 HISTORY AND DETAILS OF WHALING. 



The Length of a Whale Voyage is determined by the 

 Number of Seasons. One season in the Ochotsk or Arctic, 

 including the outward and homeward passages, consumes one 

 year and a half. Two seasons at the north, including the pas- 

 sages outward and home, and one " between seasons," require 

 two and a half years. Three seasons, including the passages 

 and two '* between seasons," will require three and a half years. 



Sperm whalemen, who are not governed by these seasons and 

 between seasons, as right whalers are, are absent from home 

 three and a half and four years, and sometimes longer. In- 

 deed, the success or ill success of whalemen in obtaining oil 

 determines essentially the length of voyages. 



CHAPTER V. 



Increased Length of Whaling Voyages. — Capital. — Value of Oils and Bone. 

 — Value of several Classes of Whaling Vessels. — "Lay." — Boat's 

 Crew. — Whaleboats. — Approaching a Whale. — Harpooning. — Whale 

 Warp. — Danger when the Line runs out. — Locomotive Power of the 

 Whale. — Lancing. — Flurry. — Cutting in. — Boiling out. — The " Case 

 and Junk." — The Rapidity with which Oil may be taken. 



The voyages of all classes of whalemen are much longer and 

 more tedious now than formerly. Whales are more scarce, 

 more easily frightened ; they change their grounds or haunts 

 oftener ; and besides, the number of vessels engaged in their 

 capture, in all seas, is largely increased, compared with the 

 number twenty years since, or even later. 



More capital is now employed in this enterprise than ever be- 

 fore ; and, were it not for the greatly advanced prices of oils 

 and bone beyond what they were a few years ago, — taking 

 into account the scarcity of whales, the long time occupied on 

 a voyage, the augmented expense of fitting out ships, in the 



