THE ECONOMICS OF WHALING 41 



of certain species of whales. It acts as a strainer 

 in the whale's mouth, detaining its food. Some 

 three hundred of these plates are found in the mouth 

 of an adult whale, their length being in the Green 

 land Whale from ten to twelve feet. They art 

 very flexible, strong, elastic and light. 



The yalue of the " bone " lies in the fact that 

 when softened with hot water or by heating before 

 a fire, it retains any given shape, provided it is 

 secured in that shape until cold. 



Whalebone at one time commanded a very high 

 price, since it served as a base for the rigid stays 

 and expanded hoops of our great-grandmothers. 

 The Dutch have at times obtained seven hundred 

 pounds a ton for it, and it is said their export trade 

 to England for this one article alone reached the 

 annual sum of a hundred thousand pounds. In 

 1763 its price was five hundred pounds per ton. 

 In the early part of the nineteenth century its price 

 varied from sixty to three hundred pounds, seldom 

 falling to the lowest rate and rarely exceeding a 

 hundred and fifty pounds. Scoresby estimated the 

 price for the five years ending 1818 at ninety 

 pounds per ton, but in July, 1830, it was quoted a* 

 a hundred and sixty to a hundred and eighty pounds 

 per ton. 



Towards the end of the nineteenth century the 

 American fishery depended almost exclusively on 

 whalebone. 1 



1 " Whalebone Its Production and Utilisation," by Charles 

 H. Stevenson, U.S.A. Bureau of Fisheries Document, No. 626, 

 Washington Governine; i '. '. .g ^ ace, :g 



