46 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



being particularly abundant in the dark skin situated 

 between the epidermis and the blubber. 



This, in the form of the dark mud mentioned 

 above, was formerly thrown away, but steps are now 

 being taken to utilise it. 



Before passing on to consider the regulations 

 which have been, and which might be, made for the 

 protection of the various species of whales, it is 

 necessary briefly to summarise the effect of whaling 

 on the abundance and distribution of those species 

 which have been most persistently hunted. 



In all cases where whales have been the object of 

 a regular fishery the operations of the whalers have 

 had one inevitable result, and the sequence of 

 events in each case presents a remarkable similarity. 

 In every case the commencement of whaling is 

 marked by a great abundance of whales, and the 

 industry has been for a time exceedingly prosperous. 

 Sooner or later a decline has set in, and naturally, 

 with improved methods of killing, the period of 

 decline has set in earlier and proceeded more rapidly 

 in the later phases of whaling. Contrast the 

 lengthy period during which the fishery for the 

 Greenland Whale persisted, with the remarkably 

 rapid decline of the Humpback fishery in the Ant- 

 arctic region to the south of the South American 

 coasts. The Greenland Whale, though easier of 

 capture than the Humpback, defied the primitive 

 efforts of the whaler of Spitsbergen for a couple of 

 centuries ; the Humpback, a more agile species than 

 the Greenland Whale, and consequently more 



