616 



Whalinf/ Interests, 1865. 



tious the past year. The great ditiiculty appears to be the short time between 

 the breaking up of the ice and the closing- up of the same, rendering the season 

 available for whaling extremely short. Whales seem to be plenty, but they arc 

 very shy and difficult to cai)ture. There were four arrivals from Hudson's Bay in 

 1804 — three into New Bedford and one into New London — bringing 3,454 barrels 

 ATliale-oil and 55,000 pounds bone. There are now wintering in Hudson's Bay 

 aud Cumberland Inlet twelve American whalers — the Antelope, Ansel Gibbs, 

 Black h^agle, Glacier, Morning Star, and Orray Taft, Cornelia, George & JNIary, 

 Helen F., Monticello, Pioneer, and Concordia, — all of which will probably arrive 

 home next fall. 



" Of the American whalers from the north, twenty-three arrived at San Fran- 

 cisco, forty-two at the Sandwich Islands, one at Monterey, and one at Panama. 

 All the foreign whalers arrived at the Sandwich Islands. 



f Of the eighty-one whalers which sailed from home ports in 1864, nineteen 

 were bound to the North Pacific, fifteen to Cumberland Inlet and Hudson's Bay, 

 five to Desolation and Hurd's Island, and the balance, sperm-whaling to the At- 

 lantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. 



" From i^resent appearances, the import of sperm-oil will be considerably less 

 this year than in 1864. The fleet on the Pacific coast is very small, and doing 

 very little, with one or two exceptions. The South Pacific fleet is also much re- 

 duced, and has done poorly. Very few ships are in the Indian Ocean. The 

 fleet in the Atlantic has done better, although whaling has been much inter- 

 rupted about the Western Islands, the "Two Forties" and other grounds by 

 uncommon rough weather. The quantity of oil landed at Fayal in 1864 by 

 whalers is 4,862 barrels sperm, 883 barrels whale ; also 1 ,395 pounds bone. All 

 the oil but about 300 barrels has arrived home. 



Uxports of sperm-oil, whale-oil, and whalebone from the United States. 



Year. 



Sperm- 

 oil. 



I Barrels. 



1864 45,000 



1803 1 18,806 



1862 27,976 



1861 37,547 



1800 32, 792 



1859 52,207 



Whale- 

 oil. 



Barrels. 

 12, 000 

 11,297 

 08, 583 

 49, 909 

 13, 007 

 8,179 



Whale- 

 bone. 



Pounds. 

 530, 000 

 279, 394 



1, 004, 981 



1,145,013 

 911,226 



1.707,929 



