110 



WHALE FISHERY. 



Although there is little doubt that the Norwegians were the first who 

 engaged in the catching of these Monsters of the deep, yet it is certain 

 that the inhabitants of the coast on the Bay of Biscay were the first who 

 followed Whale fishing in a systematic manner, and for commercial 

 purposes. The Bay being soon thinned of fish, the whalers removed 

 their trade to the coasts farther north, and, by degees, carried on their 

 enterprises on the shores of Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. 

 Thus began the northern whale fishery about the middle of the sixteenth 

 century. 



The earliest Whaling Voyage made by the English, was by some mer- 

 chants of Hull, in 1598, who fitted out some ships expressly for that 

 purpose. The Dutch, French, Danes, &c. quickly followed, both in 

 England and Holland the fishery was carried on exclusively by chartered 

 companies, till about a century ago, when the trade was thrown open in 

 both countries, previous to which it was anything but a source of 

 profit even to the monopolists. 



In 1732 the British Parliament adopted a scale of premiums, to give 

 encouragement to the fishery. Thus a bounty was offered of 20 shillings 

 per ton, and, in 1749, it was doubled; but as this was found to lead to 

 great fraud, it was first reduced to 30s. per ton, and altogether withdrawn 

 iu 1824. The only competitors to the British in the fiishery now are the 

 Americans, Hamburghers, and Russians. 



The whale ships are strongly-made vessels, of from 3 to 400 tons 

 burden ; and they leave the country in time to reach Shetland by the 

 first of April, where they complete their ballast and get thence to the ice, 

 about the end of May. This rule is not so strictly observed as formerly, 

 fish being now frequently sought with success, as early as April, and as 

 late as September or October. Their scene of action too is changed' 

 instead of the Arctic Ocean on the east coast of Greenland being chosen as 

 formerly, the whalers now proceed directly through Davis' Straits, to the 

 great inland sea, called Baffin's Bay, which lies on the other side of Green- 

 land. In those high latitudes whales still exist in very large numbers; 

 but, from the prevalence of ice bergs > the fishery in Baffin's Bay is more 

 perilous than that which used to be carried on in the animal's more 

 ancient haunt. 



