LIST OF STORES AND OUTFITS. 319 
termed, ordinarily involves the time of three years or more. A ship that takes three seasons north, 
after arriving in the Pacific, generally prolongs her absence from home to three years and a half. 
Sperm whalers are not so much confined to the regular annual seasons for pursuing their prey as 
are the Right or Polar whalemen, as they change from one ground to another through the year, 
and their voyages are frequently extended from three and a half to four years. Vessels fitted out 
for the North Pacific, Arctic Ocean, Okhotsk Sea, or Japan Sea, generally sail from home in the 
fall of the year, in order to make the passage of Cape Horn or Cape of Good Hope during the 
summer season of that region; and all whalers, as far as practicable, return to the home coast in 
the spring months; yet we may say they are continually coming and going. But the old routine 
of whaling -voyages is now much changed, especially with the larger class of vessels which ply then- 
vocation in the Pacific and contiguous waters. Many of the ships are now ordered by their owners 
to San Francisco, California, at the termination of each northern season, where an agent meets the 
vessels, and transacts the business of transshipping oil and bone, refitting ship, and changing officers 
and crews, which now often occurs. 
