488 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



seems to have commenced at Nantucket about 1712. This 

 port and New Bedford, Mass., were its main centers for over a 

 century and a half, although a number of whalers sailed from 

 England and France as well. The Atlantic, the Pacific, and the 

 Indian Oceans were searched for sperm whales year by year, 

 the vessels often making voyages of several years' duration and 

 navigating the seas of the world. "English ships had joined 

 in the business in 1785, and in 1788-1790 the 'Amelia' of Lon- 

 don was the first ship to sail round Cape Horn into the Pacific, 

 where 'the enormous cargo of 139 tons of sperm oil' was 

 obtained. In 1789 the operations were extended to the Indian 

 Ocean, the neighbourhood of Madagascar proving to be a rich 

 whaling ground. Pacific whaling rapidly increased, the coasts 

 of Chili and Peru and the Galapagos becoming favorite resorts. 

 About 1802 the Sperm Whale began to be hunted in New 

 Zealand waters, and vessels were visiting the Molucca Islands 

 with the same object. New grounds were shortly afterwards 

 discovered in the Japan seas, where there were nearly 100 

 whaling ships in 1835" (Harmer, 1928). The United States 

 fleet began to decline after 1846. In 1859 came kerosene as a 

 rival illuminant to whale oil, which had so long been supreme. 

 This added factor contributed to lowering the profits from long 

 whaling voyages, and a still more rapid rate of decline set in. 

 Since the American industry had passed its zenith over 20 

 years before, it becomes evident that a main cause for the 

 decline was the increasing scarcity of whales, which had been 

 destroyed faster than their rate of reproduction. After the 

 middle of the last century sperm whaling on a small but lessen- 

 ing scale continued till about 1884. On these longer voyages 

 the whalers had discovered right whales in the southern oceans, 

 as well as in the North Pacific, and eked out their catches of 

 sperm oil with that of these whales. They were largely fished 

 out, however, by the middle of the last century. The Japanese 

 seem to have hunted the right whale in their own waters from 

 an earlier period. 



What may be termed a fourth and perhaps the final phase 

 of whaling was introduced with the invention of a harpoon gun 

 by Svend Foyn in 1865. Much earlier an explosive bomb had 

 been invented to be shot from a shoulder gun ; the dart carried 

 an explosive charge, which after having been fired into the 

 whale's body at short range, presently caused its death. This 



