Oils from Marine Mammals. 



205 



necessary to enter into any lengthened detail here of the 

 prosecution of this fishery, which has largely declined, 

 having been much abandoned, as compared with former 

 years, both by the English and Americans. The French 

 have given it up altogether. 



A quarter of a century ago, 730 ships, registering 

 233,189 tons, were employed in the American whale fishery ; 

 now there are less than 170 vessels, registering 40,000 tons, 

 employed in whaling. 



The extensive use of gas, as well as the employment 

 of mineral and vegetable oils, for illuminating purposes, 

 has in a great degree superseded the demand for whale oil 

 that existed half a century ago. Our annual average im- 

 ports of train oil, it will be seen, keep pretty steady. 



IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM, 



The blubber on a fat whale is sometimes, in its thickest 

 parts, from 15 to 20 inches thick, though usually not more 

 than a foot ; it is of a coarse texture, and much harder 

 than pork. So very full of oil is it, that a cask closely 

 packed with the clean raw fat of the whale will not contain 

 the oil boiled from it and the scraps that are left besides. 



