270 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



the Faroes in July. The Bottlenose feeds entirely 

 on cephalopods. 



The Scottish fishery in Arctic waters and between 

 Greenland and North America has a long and 

 interesting history. By 1898 this industry was 

 obyiously moribund. Mainly, and originally 

 exclusively, devoted to the capture of the Green- 

 land Right Whale, the Scottish whalers, towards 

 the end, omitted no opportunity of making a 

 paying voyage, and consequently were not above 

 taking the White Whale, the Narwhal, and the 

 Bottlenose; even seals were captured. 



The Greenland Right Whale, the White Whale, 

 and the Narwhal, are exclusively Arctic creatures. 

 In 1870 an average Greenland Whale was worth 

 from one thousand two hundred to one thousand 

 five hundred pounds. Since then the price of oil 

 has materially diminished the whalebone, on the 

 contrary, increased in price. 



According to David Gray the Peterhead whalers 

 killed from 1788 to 1879 no less than four thousand 

 one hundred and ninety-five Greenland Whales; 

 the Dundee fleet for the similar period capturing 

 four thousand two hundred and twenty. These 

 statistics should be contrasted with the slaughter 

 of the Finners by the Norwegian whalers, which 

 at the end of the nineteenth century reached the 

 annual figure of two thousand. 



The decline of the Scottish whaling fleet towards 

 the end of the nineteenth century was most marked. 

 In 1868 there were thirty-nine vessels, of which 



