194 PACIFIC AND 



might be found of the Pacific ocean and South seas. The whaling 

 captains were ready to communicate such knowledge as they had 

 treasured up or recorded in their numerous voyages. The owners 

 of the whale-ships were equally anxious to do all in their power 

 to assist me in the object of my visit to them. In these places, 

 the navigators are certainly better acquainted with those seas 

 than any other people in this or any other country can be. The 

 information had, in some measure, been gathered in gross, but 

 without order or much arrangement ; and I had to go over the 

 whole ground, and examine at Nantucket every individual navi- 

 gator of those seas who could be found at home, with their log- 

 books, and journals, and charts The doing of this, and putting 

 the intelligence into such form as might save you much time in 

 reading, was a work of no trifling magnitude, which I mention 

 only to excuse the delay of this report. It was pleasant for me 

 to find that all I had heard before was confirmed by a long train 

 of witnesses, and every calculation I had previously made fell far 

 short of the truth. 



The first objects of my inquiry were the navigation, geography, 

 and topography presented by the whole range of the seas, from 

 the Pacific to the Indian and Chinese oceans ; also, the extent and 

 nature of our commerce and fisheries in these seas. 



The whole number of vessels in the whale-fishery, with those 

 engaged in the sealing business, far exceeded the number I had 

 given in my communication to the naval committee, and their 

 tonnage was much greater. There are at least two hundred ships 

 employed, being on an average of two hundred and seventy-five 

 tons ; some as large as five hundred, and others under two hundred 

 tons. The average length of their voyages, taking one hundred 

 and seventy-eight voyages, from 1815 to 1824, was twenty-nine 

 months, and the average cargo of oil from the same ships was 

 exceeding seventeen hundred barrels. But it should be observed 

 .that the ships are now generally larger than they were formerly, 





