20 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



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bays in the Bering Sea are visited by the fleet on its way to the Arctic, and large numbers of 

 whales are sometimes taken in these waters before the ice permits the vessels to pass through the 

 Strait. 



The North Pacific whale fishery was at its height in 1846, when 292 ships cruised in the region 

 north of the fiftieth parallel, between the Asiatic and the American shores. In 1868 there were 

 but 68 vessels in the fleet, of which number 41 were in the Arctic Ocean, 8 in the Okhotsk Sea, 

 and 19 on the Kadiak ground. In the season of 1880 the fleet was reduced to 19 vessels, all of 

 which cruised in the Arctic and captured a total of 265 whales. 



"The principal herding places of thebowheads in the Okhotsk," says Scainmon, "were at the 

 extremities of this great sheet of water, the most northern being the Northeast Gulf (Gulf of 

 Ghijigha), the most southern Tchanter Bay. The whales did not make their appearance in 

 Northeast Gulf so soon as in the bay. Whalers endeavored, as soon as possible, to get to the head 

 of Tchanter Bay, where they found the objects of pursuit in the intermediate water, between the 

 ice and the shore, long before the main body of the congealed mass was broken up, and before the 

 ships could get between the ice and the shore, even at high tide, the boats being sent forward 

 weeks previous to the ships. Soon after the ships' arrival the whales avoided their pursuers by 

 going under the main body of ice, situated in the middle of the bay, where they found breathing- 

 holes among the floes. The boats cruised about the edge of the barrier, watching for them to 

 emerge from their covert, which occasionally they did, when chase was instantly given. Fre- 

 quently, in sailing along this ice-field, you could hear distinctly the sound of whales blowing 

 among it, where no water was visible at the point whence the sound came. The first of the season, 

 before the ice broke up and disappeared, when there were no whales about, the question was 

 frequently asked, 'Where are the whales?' and as often answered, 'They are in the ice'; and, 'When 

 do you think they will come out ? ' was answered by, ' When the ice leaves.' It has been established 

 beyond question that this species pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or rather, if we may be 

 allowed the expression, from the Atlantic Arctic to the Pacific Arctic, by the north ; and, too, it 

 is equally certain that numerous air-holes always exist in the ice that covers the Arctic waters, 

 even in the coldest latitudes. These fissures are caused by the rise and fall of the tides, and con- 

 traction and expansion of the ice. Storms acting upon the water hundreds of miles distant also 

 have their influence in rending asunder the icy fetters of those frozen seas. It appears to us 

 not improbable that the bowhead has a feeding and breeding ground in a polar sea. And as 

 they have never been seen during the winter months in any other quarter of the globe, except as 

 before mentioned, it would appear that they must remain among the rough water and broken ice, 

 at the southern edge of the winter barrier, or migrate to some remote sea unknown to man."* 



The whaling vessels enter the Okhotsk as soon as the ice leaves, which is usually about the 

 last of May, though sometimes it is as late as July. Having anchored the vessel in a convenient 

 bay or inlet, the boats are sent out in search of the whales, and the animals, after being captured, 

 are sometimes towed ashore and cut up there, the blubber being rafted off to the vessel. This 

 mode is made necessary from the fact that the boats may be absent several days or even weeks, 

 and be quite a distance from their vessel. The difficulties incident to whaling in the Okhotsk are 

 told by Captain Scainmon in his history of the whale-fishery. The whales found here during 

 recent years have been much smaller than those taken at the beginning of the fishery, when the 

 largest sometimes yielded 250 barrels of oil each, and the smallest about 80 barrels. The cow 

 whales gave the most oil, averaging about 130 barrels, and the bulls about 90 barrels, the yield of 

 bone being about 1,500 pounds to 100 barrels of oil. The season closes in the Okhotsk about the 



* fciCAMMON : llariiie Mammalia, \>. 59. 



