THE BOUNTY SYSTEM 



197 



Towards the end of the eighteenth and com- 

 mencement of the nineteenth centuries, there was 

 still a considerable Arctic whale fishery from the 

 Dutch ports and Hamburg. 



In a letter to Lord Auckland 1 from the Hague 

 dated 2nd December, 1791, Mr H. T. Spencer 

 describes the condition of the Dutch fishery. The 

 statistics show the following returns for the years 

 1787-91 : 



THE DUTCH WHALE FISHERIES. 



Of these ships thirty-four have come home empty 

 from Greenland, eleven from Davis Strait and 

 three have been lost. Amsterdam alone sent in the 



1 Auckland Papers, Vol. xxix., correspondence Oct. -Dec., 1791 

 British Museum Add. MSS. 34,440, ff. 291-302. 



