UNIVERSITY 



THE WHALE FISHERY. 



we can steer a ship, and make their distances very regular during the time they are tip 

 aud down; alarge whale will usually stay down when not disturbed from forty to fifty minutes; have 

 known them to stay down one hour ; their time on the top of the water about fifteen minutes spout- 

 ing during that time, say forty -five times, or three times to the minute. Schools are quite often seen 

 going off their regular course. The small whale does not stay down so long as the large one, and 

 is not quite so regular ; when feeding they are np and down quite often. The usual way of raising 

 or discovering the whale is from the mast heads, where men are stationed all the time in good 

 weather during the day ; the spout is generally seen first,~uTrh;ss they are breaching or lap-tailing, 

 which makes white water and is more easily seen than the spout, and can be seen farther off. In a very 

 clear day with a moderate breeze a spout can be seen 6 miles, and sometimes 7 miles, and a breach 

 12 when a large one. A breach is when the whale comes out of water ; he generally comes out head- 

 foremost two-thirds of his length and falls over on his side, which throws up a large amount of 

 water ; the size of the breach is in proportion to the whale. A lap-tail is when the whale throws 

 his tail out of water, and when he lets it down it usually throws up a great deal of water, and 

 experienced whalemen can tell the different kind of whales very readily shortly after they see them 

 spout, or by their breach; the sperm-whale spout is blown out forward and from the forward end 

 of the head, and is thick and bushy, while the finback is straight up and thin ; the right is forked 

 forming two spouts at the top ; the humpback is lower and thin ; the breach of a sperm whale, when 

 made regular, will be like a cone and be much higher than other whales, which are lower, aud 

 makes more of a splash spreading out ; the length of the sperm whale are according to their 

 size; the longest I should think would not exceed 70 feet, the head forming about one-third of the 

 length, and making about one-third of the oil. There are some exceptions as to this; the large 

 whale will usually make 38 per cent, head, while the smaller one will not make over 30 per cent., 

 so that it makes some difference in a cargo that is obtained of large whales or small ones. The case 

 of a large whale, which is the top of the head, will yield from 8 to 12 barrels pure spermaceti. In 

 former years it was the custom to hang the same in the ship's tackles, and bail the oil out in buckets; 

 the practice is still in use now in small vessels, but large ones, since the patent gear to the wind- 

 lass has been in use, have usually hove the whale head in on deck, first separating the junk from 

 the case, and taking the junk first, then the ease, and bail the oil out while the same lies on deck; 

 (much more is saved iu this way than iu the old process of bailing them alongside ;) the outside, or 

 white horse, as it is termed, is then thrown overboard, the junk is cut up into horse-pieces, as they 

 are called by whalemen, and put into casks on deck, or tanks below deck, if the ship is provided 

 with one preparatory to bailing out the same. The jaw of a large sperm whale is about 18 feet 

 long, meaning the longest ones, and projects out of the head about 10 feet, and the prongs or pans 

 are inside about 8 feet. There are generally about forty -four teeth to a jaw, a row being formed on 

 each side. On the upper jaw there are no teeth, the teeth to the lower jaw going into sockets in 

 the upper when the mouth is closed. Their food is a fish called squid, at times said to be very large ; 

 we often see small ones on the top of the water, and pieces of the larger ones floating about on the 

 surface from the size of a bucket to the size of a barrel ; while in the act of killing them they some- 

 times throw up pieces of the squid." 



G. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NORTH PACIFIC AND ARCTIC WHALE FISHERY. 



THE NORTH PACIFIC AND PACIFIC-ARCTIC FISHERY. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE FISHERY. The history of whaling in the Arctic Ocean north of 

 Bering Strait, begins in the year 1848, when Captain Roys, of the bark Superior, of Sag Harbor, 

 . Y., cruised there and took many large whales. The Honolulu Friend gives the following 



