INTRODUCTION. xix 



American officers and harpooners to instruct them in 

 the ways of dealing with these highly active and 

 dangerous cetacea. Naturally, it was by-and-by found 

 possible to dispense with the services of these auxiliaries ; 

 but it must be confessed that the business never seems 

 to have found such favour, or to have been prosecuted 

 with such smartness, among our whalemen as it has 

 by the Americans. 



Something of an exotic the trade always was among 

 us, although it did attain considerable proportions at 

 one time. At first the fishing was confined to the 

 Atlantic Ocean ; nor for many years was it necessary to 

 go farther afield, as abundance of whales could easily 

 be found. 



As, however, the number of ships engaged increased, 

 it was inevitable that the known grounds should become 

 exhausted, and in 1788 Messrs. Enderby's ship, the 

 Emilia, first ventured round Cape Horn, as the pioneer 

 of a greater trade than ever. The way once pointed out, 

 other ships were not slow to follow, until, in 1819, the 

 British whale-ship Syren opened up the till then unex- 

 plored tract of ocean in the western part of the North 

 Pacific, afterwards familiarly known as the " Coast of 

 Japan." From these teeming waters alone, for many 

 years an average annual catch of 40,000 barrels of oil 

 was taken, which, at the average price of £8 per barrel, 

 will give some idea of the value of the trade generally. 



The Australian colonists, early in their career, found 

 the sperm whale fishery easy of access from all their 

 coasts, and especially lucrative. At one time they bade 

 fair to establish a whale fishery that should rival the 



