THE LAST PHASE OF WHALING 283 



whales off the Newfoundland coast, towing them 

 ashore, where the preparation of the products took 

 place. It was in 1904 that the Norwegians com- 

 menced their operations in South Polar Seas, a 

 company being formed at Buenos Ayres to establish 

 a station on South Georgia. A whaling steamer 

 of considerably larger size than usual (one hundred 

 and five by twenty by thirteen feet deep) was 

 built in Norway for the South Polar whaling. 

 This was necessary on account of the longer 

 distance to be covered. The steamer could carry 

 one hundred tons of bunker coal, and was capable 

 of towing six Blue Whales. There were also two 

 vessels (a barque and schooner) to transport pro- 

 visions and other material from Buenos Ayres to 

 South Georgia and carry oil back. The personnel 

 was entirely Norwegian, but the capital Argentine. 



This year the Scottish whaling fleet from Dundee 

 consisted of seven vessels, which fished in Hudson 

 Bay and Davis Strait. They captured eleven 

 Greenland Whales (Black Whales) with one 

 thousand one hundred and fifty barrels of train 

 oil and twelve thousand five hundred pounds of 

 whalebone, as well as one hundred and sixty-eight 

 White Whales, one thousand one hundred and 

 thirty-five seals, one hundred and nine polar bears, 

 two hundred and eleven foxes, and thirty musk-ox. 



In 1904-5 the first Norwegian wintering expedi- 

 tions to Spitsbergen took place. These expeditions 

 were for general hunting and fishing purposes, and 

 were not confined to whaling. 



