FISHERIES. 



The peeled white body of the beheaded whale 

 flashes like a marble sepulchre ; though changer 

 in hue, it has not perceptibly lost anything in bulk 

 It is still colossal Slowly it floats more and 

 more away, the water round it torn and splashed 

 by the insatiate sharks, and the air above vexed 

 with rapacious flights of screaming fowls, whose 

 beaks are like so many insulting poniards in the 

 whale.' 



The spermaceti is now extracted from the head, 

 and the preparation of the oil commences. Once 

 kindled, the furnace gives out an intense heat, 

 which is kept up by throwing in all the refuse 

 matter. The apparatus for boiling is called the 

 try-works, and the operation of boiling the blubber 

 is termed trying-out. The harpooners, ' with huge 

 pronged forks, pitch the hissing masses of blubber 

 into the scalding pots, or stir up the fire beneath, 

 till the smoky flames dart curling out of the doors 

 to catch them by the feet. Anon the smoke rolls 

 away in sullen heaps. To every pitch of the ship 

 there is a pitch of the boiling oil, which seems all 

 eagerness to leap from the copper.' After this 

 process, the oil is conveyed to the coolers ; and, 

 finally, it is run into the barrels or tanks ; and 

 some day, the battered ship, after an absence of 

 perhaps four years, runs to her port, and so finishes 

 her adventures for the time. 



RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE NORTHERN SEA 

 WHALE-FISHERY. 



It is natural to suppose that those nations 

 dwelling on the shores of the arctic seas would 

 be the earliest engaged in the whale-fishery ; and 

 accordingly we find that not only did the Nor- 

 wegians and other Scandinavians precede all the 

 other nations of Europe in this perilous but pro- 

 fitable line of enterprise, but they also were the 

 first introducers of it among the southern nations. 

 The shores of the Bay of Biscay, where the 

 Normans formed early settlements, became famous, 

 through them, for the whale-fishing there carried 

 on. In the same region was it first made a regular 

 commercial pursuit, and as whales then visited 

 the bay in great numbers, the traffic was con- 

 venient and easy. The Biscayans maintained it 

 with great vigour and success in the twelfth, 

 thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries ; they ulti- 

 mately, however, relinquished the fishery from 

 the want of fish, which ceased to come south- 

 ward, no longer leaving the icy seas. The voy- 

 ages of the Dutch and English to the Northern 

 Ocean, in order to discover a passage through 

 it to India, though they failed in their primary 

 object, laid open the remote haunts of the whale. 

 The British Muscovy Company obtained a royal 

 charter, prohibiting all vessels but theirs from 

 ishing in the seas round Spitzbergen, under pre- 

 snce that it was discovered by Sir Hugh Wil- 

 loughby. The fact, however, was, that Barentz, 

 a merchant-seaman of Amsterdam, had discovered 

 it in 1596; and neither Dutch, Spaniards, nor 

 Frenchmen were at all disposed to admit the 

 justice or propriety of the claim made by the 

 English. An extraordinary scene followed in the 

 northern seas. The Muscovy Company sent out 

 six or seven strongly armed vessels, which took 

 up a position near Spitzbergen, and commenced 

 an attack on all foreign ships that refused either 

 to quit the region at once, or pay the very moderate 



toll of one-half the proceeds of their fishing ! The 

 English succeeded so far as to annoy everybody 

 else, and to prevent themselves from taking almost 

 a single fish, so busy were they in looking after 

 others. All the nations of Europe remonstrated 

 loudly through their envoys against these pro- 

 ceedings ; but the Dutch, ever fearless at sea, 

 sent out a strong fleet, which effectually guarded 

 their own fishing. At length, in 1618, a general 

 engagement took place, in which the English were 

 worsted. Hitherto, the two governments had 

 allowed the fishing adventurers to fight out their 

 own battles ; but in consequence of the event 

 mentioned, it was considered prudent to divide 

 the Spitzbergen bays and seas into fishing-stations, 

 where the companies might not trouble each other. 

 After this period, the Dutch quickly gained a 

 superiority over their rivals. While the English 

 prosecuted the trade sluggishly, and with incom- 

 petent means, the Dutch turned their fisheries to 

 great account, and in 1680 had about 260 ships 

 and 14,000 sailors employed in them. 



After the dissolution of the Muscovy Company, 

 a Greenland Company, with an actual capital of 

 ,45,000, entered on the trade, and in nine years 

 came to a ruinous close. In 1725, the South Sea 

 Company took up the adventure ; and in eight 

 years, after a vast outlay, they also were compelled 

 to submit to a dead loss of their capital, and throw 

 up the attempt. The legislature now tried a new 

 scheme, being sincerely desirous to encourage and 

 establish the trade, as well as to make it a nursery 

 for seamen. In 1732, a bounty of 305. a ton was 

 granted to every ship of 200 tons burden that 

 engaged in the fishing. In 1749, it was thought 

 necessary to raise the bounty to 405. when, as Mr 

 M'Culloch observes, as many ships seem to have 

 been fitted out for catching the bounty as for 

 catching fish. But a trade supported on any other 

 principle than that of direct benefit received from 

 t by the parties engaged therein, can never 

 ae enduring, and this truth soon appeared 

 n the present case. In 1777, the bounty was 

 reduced to 305. ; the consequence of which was, 

 that during the next five years, the number of 

 ships employed in the trade was reduced from 105 

 to 39 ! In 1781, the bounty was raised again to its 

 old level, and an inducement was thus held out 

 "or the revival of the trade. But after all, what 

 a million and a half of money, expended in suc- 

 cessive donations under the name of bounty, was 

 otally inefficient to do, the spirit of private enter- 

 jrise, once fairly awakened, speedily accomplished. 

 The British whale-fisheries throve rapidly between 

 1781 and 1795 ; and the legislature found them- 

 selves justified in reducing the bounty, at intervals, 

 from 405. to zos. In any sketch of the whale- 

 ishery, Peterhead deserves especial mention. The 

 Peterhead Greenland fishing commenced in 1788, 

 and for fourteen years afterwards, one vessel per 

 innum regularly left the port in pursuit of the 

 whale. In the first eight years, the produce was 

 only six fish ; but in 1798, greater enterprise began 

 o be manifested, and some voyages produced as 

 many as eleven whales. For many years a con- 

 siderable number of ships have left this flourishing 

 port. 



The great difficulty in the whale-fishery is to get 

 o the haunts of the animals in season, and the 

 only proper method of doing so is to winter beyond 

 he barrier of ice, which extends over a breadth of 



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