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LETTER 



The advantages derived from the whale fishery by 

 several European nations, and particularly Great Bri- 

 tain,, are so well known, as to -preclude the necessity 

 c.f expatiating on the subject. I shall only desire 

 v-mi to observe, that near three hundred vessels sail 

 Tn>m tin's country annually to Greenland and Davis's 

 Sirai'*-, in this trade, and for the most part make pro- 

 fitable voyages. 



r I,T,c catching of whales in the Greenland seas, 

 among immense masses of ice, presents one of the 

 most curious scenes that are any where displayed in 

 the whole circle of the transactions of mankind W 7 ith 

 the animal creation. These fields, pr fragments of 

 ice> which are as old as the world, are frequently 

 more than a mile long, and above a hundred feet in 

 Thickness; and when they are first set in motion by a 

 storrn, nothing in nature can exhibit a more terriiic 

 appearance. No less than thirteen Dutch ships were 

 in one season crushed to pieces among those ponder- 

 ous masses. Perhaps the voyages made to those ri- 

 gorous climates and frozen seas, for the purpose of 

 catching whales, may be reckoned among the boldest 

 and most arduous enterprises of man. 



Every ship employed in this business is provided 

 wifh six boats, to each of which six men are appoint- 

 ed tor rowing, and a harpobner for striking the whale. 

 Two of these boats are constantly kept on the watch 

 at some distance from the ship. As soon as a whale 

 is discovered, both the boats set out in pursuit of it, 

 and if either of them can come up before the fish de- 

 scends, which is known by his throwing up his tail, 

 the harpooner darts his harpoon at him. As soon as 

 he is struck, the men make a signal to the ship, and 

 the watchman alarms all the rest with the cry of 

 '< fail ! fall!" when all the other boats are immedi- 

 ately sent out to the assistance of the first. The 

 whale, as soon as he finds himself wounded, runs oft' 

 with amazing rapidity and violence. Sometimes he 

 descends perpendicularly, and sometimes goes oil' in 

 an horizontal direction, at a small depth below the 

 surface. The rope that is fastened to the harpoon, it* 



