248 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



of whales killed is compared with the number of 

 barrels of oil obtained in the earlier and later years : 



It is perhaps hardly necessary to point out that 

 this is an extravagant method of fishing and a great 

 waste of natural resources. 



The average yield of a Polar Right Whale in 1897 

 was estimated in oil at thirty cents a gallon, and four 

 dollars a pound for whalebone, those being the prices 

 at San Francisco. The total value of the whale was 

 about eight thousand dollars (one thousand six 

 hundred pounds). Against this must be set the very 

 high cost of fitting out ships for this fishery. A sail- 

 ing vessel with four boats had a crew of thirty-eight 

 men, a steamer with five boats forty-four men. They 

 were provisioned usually for a year. Only the 

 engineers were paid by wage, the others by " lays," 

 i.e., a share in the profits. These lays varied at this 

 time from an eleventh in the case of the captain, to 

 a hundred and fiftieth for a greenhand or cabin boy. 



The first engineer received one hundred and 

 twenty-five, the second ninety dollars monthly. 

 Insurance was high from ten per cent for steamers, 



