THE BOUNTY SYSTEM 265 



Kohler been contemporaneous with Mark Twain 

 they might have compared notes in this respect on 

 the relative merits of dead whales and Limburger 

 cheese. 



On the 23rd August, being then ice-free, they set 

 sail for home. Kohler says it was impossible to 

 describe their feelings of joy at this welcome news, 

 the ship's doctor breaking out into poetry to com- 

 memorate their farewell to the world of ice. 

 Ultimately they reached Heligoland where they 

 declined a pilot, owing to the expense (eighty-eight 

 thalers to Cuxhaven). They held on, and running 

 away from an English convoy, went ashore, only 

 getting off with some difficulty. 



Kohler's pay for his services on this voyage 

 (performed under circumstances of the greatest 

 danger) amounted to ten shillings. 



In 1821 Manby 1 made a voyage to Greenland in 

 Scoresby's ship, the Baffin, from Liverpool, for the 

 express purpose of trying a new gun harpoon. Up 

 to this time there was great prejudice among the 

 whalers against the use of gun harpoons, the hand 

 harpoon being invariably preferred. 



At this time it is evident the Greenland whale 

 fishery was rapidly declining ; due in the first place 

 to the substitution of coal gas for oil gas, and in a 

 lesser degree to the diminution of the whales and 

 the losses of ships crushed amongst the ice. 

 Manby remarks on the superior advantages of oil 



1 G. W. Manby, " Journal of a Voyage to Greenland in the 

 year 1821," London, 1823, 



