THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 409 



much overworked, and consequently became exhausted ;* 

 and the Spitzbergen whales, formerly described as 

 "innocent creatures," who unsuspectingly came and dis- 

 ported within a short distance from the ships lying off 

 Smeerenburg, in time became cunning enough to avoid 

 them, and retreat into the more northerly ice regions. 

 They were, indeed, pursued from place to place, but the 

 greater distance from Smeerenburg made the landing of the 

 prey more and more difficult Whalers were at last obliged 

 to " flens " or carve the- blubber and whalebone while 

 out at sea, and carry home blubber instead of oil, whereby 

 the extensive Smeerenburg boiling establishments and the 

 thriving trade of the oil-ships had to be gradually aban- 

 doned, involving, of course, considerable loss of capital. 

 This caused the ardour for whaling to slacken, and thereby 

 prevented the foynding of new establishments on other 

 places, which was, besides, made very difficult by the fact 

 of other nations having by this time taken possession of 

 most of the available whaling area, and each excluding others 

 from the shores of his own domain, to which, as stated by 

 Zorgdrager, no foreign boat was admitted unless the harpoon 

 were previously taken out of the " mik " or stand used in 

 shooting or throwing it. The pretensions of Denmark 

 relative to the exclusive right to some parts of the whaling 

 sea will be spoken of in another chapter. 



The company's charter once more expiring in 1641, the 

 state of their affairs was such as to prevent their suing for 

 another renewal of it. Still, whaling experiments in parts 

 till then unvisited seemed full of promise, and the trade was 

 accordingly commenced at once by men from several pro- 

 vinces and towns, as soon as the discontinuance of the 



* Wagenaar, Voder 1. Hist. x. p. 68. 



