THE LAST PHASE OF WHALING 271 



fifteen were steamers. In 1873 Dundee sent out 

 ten steamers of three hundred to four hundred tons, 

 and thirty-six to seventy horse power. The 

 voyage of the Arctic described by Markham, has 

 already been referred to (see p. 256). 



The last years of the nineteenth century showed 

 the Scottish Arctic whaling fleet to have practically 

 reached its vanishing point: 



No. of vessels. No. of whales captured. 



1890 17 12 



1891 12 17 



1892 ii 9 



1893 7 33 



1894 9 20 



1895 8 17 



1896 9 ii 



1897 10 13 



1898 7 8 



In 1901 there were five steamers from Dundee 

 and one from Peterhead. By this time the whalers, 

 finding it did not pay to confine themselves 

 exclusively to whaling, captured any other animal 

 which would help to make a profit. The total 

 catch of these six steamers was fourteen and a 

 half Greenland Whales, seven hundred and thirty- 

 eight White Whales, four hundred and twenty 

 walrus, three thousand four hundred and thirty 

 seals, one hundred and forty-nine polar bears, 

 yielding altogether two hundred and sixty tons of 

 train oil and one hundred and sixty-three and a 

 half hundredweights of whalebone, the price of the 

 latter being one thousand two hundred and fifty 

 pounds per ton. 



