A-PPEISTDIX V. 



WHALE AND SEAL OIL IN THE MANUFACTURE OF JUTE. 



It is well kuown that the vicinity of Hudson's Bay has of late years become 

 less and less inviting to the whaler in place of proving the more and more prof- 

 itable, as anticipated by Hall for his New London friends. In addition to the 

 special reasons for this, growing out of the shortness of whaling season there, 

 the difficulty of access and of the navigation of the straits and bay, the almost 

 entire disuse of whale-oil for lighting and other purposes will be readily remem- 

 bered. But it will also be remembered that this disuse was scarcely foreseen 

 by Hall in his sincere and sanguine hopes of opening up new fishing-grounds, 

 asked for by the whalers when he went out. 



Yet an exhaustion of the whaling-grounds which are now visited may turn 

 the ships back to Hudson's Bay ; nor can any one, to-day, foresee that some new 

 appliances in the advance of the age may not awaken such large and new demands 

 for the oil and the bone as will also justify the revisiting of Hudson's Bay and 

 its inlets. 



The following statement of the whale fishery as it was in the year 18G5 is 



taken from the Whalemen's Shipping List. 



******* 



" On the whole, the success of the northern fleet has not been very encourag- 

 ing, for although oil and bone are commanding apparently high prices, yet almost 

 every article of merchandise has advanced more than our staples, and the enor- 

 mous expense attending a whaling voyage in these times will require a much 

 larger catch to make any favorable compensation to owners of these vessels. 



"Although the weather in the Arctic and Ochotsk has been very boisterous, 

 there have been only two vessels lost the last season — the Henry Kneeland, in 

 the Arctic, and the Mary, in the Ochotsk. 



" The success in the Hudson's Bay whaling did not come up to our expecta- 



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