56 SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS. 



of oil, a ton measuring 252 gallons, and 7 ft. 6 in. of whalebone ; the longest 

 bone cut of the twenty-eight fish was 11 ft. 9 in. and the shortest 2 ft. 6 in. 

 This was considered a very successful year. The whale-fishery was com- 

 menced at Peterhead in 1788 ; since that time, up to the year 1879, Captain 

 David Gray informs me that 995 voyages have been made to the Greenland 

 and Davis' Straits whale and seal-fisheries, and there have been brought 

 home 419s Whales, furnishing 30,975 tons of oil, and 1549 tons of whale- 

 bone, besides 1,673,052 Seals, yielding 20,913 tons of oil, leaving a nett profit 

 of ^583,020, or ;^586 per ship per voyage. The Dundee whale-fishery 

 commenced in 1790, and the seal-fishery in i860; since that time up to the 

 season of 1879, 538 voyages have been made to the Greenland and Davis' 

 Straits whale and seal-fisheries, including Labrador, which have produced 

 4220 Whales, yielding 32,774 tons of oil and 1640 tons of whalebone, besides 

 917,278 Seals, yielding 10,464 tons of oil, valued together at i^2, 160,400, 

 leaving a nett profit of ^652,320, or ^1212 los. per ship per voyage. Capt. 

 Gray adds : " I have often been asked where all the Whales are gone to ; 

 let the above figures be the reply." 



The present price of whale-oil is from ^^28 to ;^30 per ton, the whalebone 

 ranging as high as i^iioo per ton, according to the length of the bone ; but 

 although there are exceptions, of late years the fishery, as a whole, is said, 

 on good authority, not to have paid the heavy expenses of the fleet engaged 

 in it, nor does there seem much prospect of improvement, mineral oil being 

 now used for many purposes for which formerly whale and seal oil was 

 required. One of the chief uses to which whale and seal oil are now 

 applied is in the preparation of the jute fibre, the manufacture of which 

 is so extensively carried on at the port of Dundee, also the chief centre of 

 the whaling trade. 



An interesting account of a whaling voyage in the ship Arctic, and full 

 particulars of the mode pursued in taking, and subsequent treatment of the 



