224 TEE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOT.*' 



CHAPTER XIX. 



EDGING SOUTHWAKD. 



The line wlialing grounds embrace an exceedingly 

 extensive area, over the whole of which sperm whales 

 may be found, generally of medium size. No means 

 of estimating the probable plenty or scarcity of them in 

 any given j^art of the grounds exist, so that falling in 

 with them is purely a matter of coincidence. To me 

 it seems a conclusive proof of the enormous numbers 

 of sperm whales frequenting certain large breadths 

 of ocean, that they should be so often fallen in with, 

 remembering what a little spot is represented by a day's 

 cruise, and that the signs which denote almost infallibly 

 the vicinity of right whales are entirely absent in the 

 case of the cachalot. In the narrow waters of the 

 Greenland seas, with quite a small number of vessels 

 seeking, it is hardly possible for a whale of any size to 

 escape being seen ; but in the open ocean a goodly fleet 

 may cruise over a space of a hundred thousand square 

 miles without meeting any of the whales that may yet 

 be there in large numbers. So that when one hears 

 talk of the extinction of the cachalot, it is well to bear in 

 mind that such a thing would take a long series of years 

 to effect, even were the whaling business waxing instead 



