274 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



hardly a day passed without these whales being 

 observed. The great development of this fishery 

 followed in the twentieth century. 



The modern development of whaling through the 

 instrumentality of small specially built steamers for 

 the killing and capture of the whale was extra- 

 ordinarily successful for a time. From its com- 

 mencement in 1880 in northern Europe it made 

 enormous strides. From Norway it extended to 

 Iceland (1889), the Faroes (1892), and ultimately 

 to the British Isles. A Norwegian company com- 

 menced in the Hebrides in 1895, but it was not until 

 1903 that the industry became firmly established in 

 the Hebrides and Shetlands. This was a direct 

 result of the prohibition of the pursuit, shooting or 

 killing of whales by the Norwegian Government in 

 the territorial waters of the districts of Nordland, 

 Tromso, and Finmarken, or the landing of whales in 

 these districts for a period of ten years from the 

 ist February, 1904. This legislation was due to the 

 protests of the local fishermen of those districts 

 against the whalers, culminating in the " Mehavn 

 Riots." The fishermen believed that the presence 

 of whales was coincident with the appearance of fish 

 off the coast, and they attributed the decline of the 

 fishing to the great destruction of the former by the 

 whalers. Whatever view be taken of the fishermen's 

 complaints, there can be no doubt that this legislation 

 caused the migration of the whalers to the British 

 coasts. 



In 1903 two Norwegian companies, the " Nor- 



