4 Progress of the Whale Fishery. 



interesting to dwell briefly on the progress of the 

 whale fishery, which, in Great Britain alone, has 

 been prosecuted for more than 250 years. 



Until the commencement of the present century 

 this lucrative trade was entirely confined (I here 

 refer solely to the capture of the mysticetus) to the 

 waters around Spitzbergen, which are commonly 

 called the Greenland fishery. At the present time, 

 with only one exception, 1 the vessels engaged in 

 the Davis' Straits and Baffin's Bay fisheries are 

 from the port of Dundee, which place, during the 

 last eighty years, with fluctuating success, has car- 

 ried on this important branch of commercial enter- 

 prise. 



During what may be considered the infancy of 

 the whale fishery, various Acts of Parliament were 

 passed by the Legislature for the encouragement 

 of the trade, and further support was given by the 

 Government, which offered a bounty of as much as 

 thirty shillings per ton on the burden of each ship 

 employed in the fishery. At the early part of this 

 century, and during the time those talented and emi- 

 nently successful whale fishers, the two Scoresbys, 

 were employed in the trade, there were no less than 

 one hundred vessels fitted out and despatched from 

 different ports in England, of which Hull, London, 

 and Whitby were the principal, and more than 



1 This year a Norwegian steamer was up Baffin's Bay. 



