THE LAST PHASE OF WHALING 263 



and ninety-seven tons from Fraserburgh ; eleven 

 steamers (two hundred and seventy-eight to four 

 hundred and fifty-five tons) and one sailing ship from 

 Dundee, and one steamer of four hundred and fifty- 

 two tons from Kirkcaldy. This was the year in which 

 Hull finally dropped out of the whaling industry. 

 At this time the Scottish fleet in part went sealing 

 and whaling between Greenland and Spitsbergen, 

 another part, especially the Dundee steamers, went 

 first to the sealing grounds off Jan Mayen, and 

 returned home starting off in the middle of May for 

 their second voyage to the whaling grounds in Davis 

 Strait up to Cumberland Strait, wintering there so 

 as to be ready for the early fishing in the following 

 spring. In 1868 fifteen ships which took part in 

 the sealing and whaling off Greenland caught only 

 three whales and fifty-one thousand eight hundred 

 and sixty-three seals, altogether six hundred and 

 thirty-seven tons of oil. Ten of the ships returned 

 quite empty, a very bad result. In Davis Strait the 

 results were better, ten steamers catching one hun- 

 dred and four whales with an oil yield of eight 

 hundred and eighty tons; the Cumberland Strait 

 ships got twenty-two whales and eight hundred and 

 eighty White Whales; of these ships two had 

 wintered out and were away eighteen months. The 

 vicissitudes of the whale fishery are enormous; in 

 1867 the Dundee whalers in Davis Strait only caught 

 two whales; in 1868 they caught seventy-nine. 



Modern whaling dates from the year 1880. At 

 that time the Right Whale (Balcena mysticetus) 



