284 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



One expedition captured twenty polar bears, 

 one hundred and five foxes (of which forty-seven 

 were blue fox), nine hundred pounds of bird-down, 

 one hundred and thirty reindeer, and sixty-five ton 

 of blubber. This vessel filled up with whale 

 skeletons, which the whaler had abandoned the 

 previous summer as worthless. A second wintering 

 exgedition in Storfiord captured sixty-eight polar 

 bears, twenty-three foxes (of which twelve were 

 blue fox), one hundred reindeer, twenty-five seals 

 (Phoca barbatd), one walrus, three hundred skins, 

 and four hundred and fifty kilograms of bird- 

 down. 



In 1905 the whaling at Iceland was excellent; 

 in Spitsbergen the whalers took from eighty-three 

 to one hundred and twenty-three whales, the latter 

 number including eighty-six Blue Whales, and 

 yielding four thousand seven hundred and eighty- 

 two barrels of blubber. 



The total catch of whales by the Norwegians in 

 Spitsbergen in 1905 was five hundred and fifty- 

 three. The number of steamers at work was fifteen, 

 and the barrels of oil produced were seventeen 

 thousand four hundred and sixty, all of first quality. 



The total Norwegian catch at Spitsbergen, 

 Iceland, the Faroes, and the Shetlands amounted 

 to two thousand five hundred and ten whales, and 

 seventy-three thousand three hundred and twenty 

 barrels of oil. 



The whaling station started in the previous year 

 in South Georgia was extraordinarily successful, 



