OCEANIC MAMMALS 487 



was tried out at the station on shore. It was not many years, 

 however, until (about 1630^40) the whales became scarce in 

 the bays, and whalers went farther and farther in their pursuit, 

 towing the carcasses back to land for rendering. Later the 

 shore works were abandoned, and the whales were cut up at sea, 

 the blubber packed in casks and the oil "extracted at home 

 after the conclusion of the voyage." This pursuit reached its 

 height about 1636-37 and declined rapidly in the Spitsbergen 

 seas thereafter. Nevertheless for two more centuries the bow- 

 head was relentlessly pursued, first in Davis Straits, then in 

 the pack ice farther north. According to Eschricht and Rein- 

 hardt, in the 60 years between 1719 and 1778, tjie Dutch 

 caught 6,986 whales in Davis Strait and Disco Bay, while in 

 later years the British whalers took a much larger number in 

 the northern parts of Baffin Bay, and in Lancaster and Barrow 

 Straits over 3,300 in the four years from 1827 to 1830. For 

 many years following the Arctic whaling centered from Peter- 

 head and Dundee, but it gradually declined, until in 1912 and 

 1913 only one ship left Dundee and each time came back 

 empty. Meanwhile, however, the pursuit of the bowhead 

 began in the North Pacific, at first in the Okhotsk Sea, and *by 

 the middle of the nineteenth century extended to Bering 

 Straits and the western Arctic Ocean. After 1851, the number 

 of ships engaged fell gradually from 138 in that season to 16 in 

 1875. On a small scale the fishing has continued into the 

 present century. As in the east, the pursuit here was at first 

 very profitable, but the whales soon were so reduced that it no 

 longer paid. The whales seem to be very slow in recuperating, 

 even under lessened pursuit. 



A third phase of this industry centers about the sperm whale. 

 Unlike the right whale and the bowhead, which were easily 

 killed and throve in colder waters, the sperm whale required 

 more energy and skill and is a species found usually in temper- 

 ate and tropical seas. Not infrequently, however, it penetrates 

 to colder waters, and it is of practically world-wide distribution. 

 The sperm whale was valued not only for its oil but for the 

 spermaceti or waxy liquid contained in the "case" surmounting 

 the enormous head. Being one of the toothed whales, it gave 

 no whalebone yield, but the large teeth in the lower jaw were 

 sometimes used for carving or other purposes. 



Sperm whaling was a typical New England pursuit and 



