110 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1439 



small number of whales taken per vessel, the 

 average being about three and seldom as many 

 as five. To give an idea of the intensive, not 

 to say destructive, methods of modern -whaling, 

 it may be noted that the day's catch of a steam 

 whaler is often as great as the season's catch 

 of these early days. 



There were, however, some exceptionally 

 "fat" years when the number ran up to ten 

 or twenty whales per vessel, which possibly 

 means better weather and better ice conditions. 



The English in their first attempts did little 

 better and it is small wonder that later on the 

 Americans attained preeminence in their field, 

 though they in turn failed sadly to realize the 

 possibilities of modern steam whaling and the 

 industry fell into the hands of the Norwegians. 

 As practically the same weapons and methods 

 were used by the Americans as by their prede- 

 cessors and competitors, it would seem as if 

 this success might justly be ascribed to the 

 greater energy in the pursuit of whales. 



The Americans seem to have had an inborn 

 contempt for the use of any gun harpoon, for 

 while it was employed by the English as early 

 as 1780 in the capture of the Bowhead, it was 

 never adopted by the Americans and it took a 

 visit to South Georgia to convince the modern 

 New Bedford whalers that the Norwegian 

 whaling methods were really any improvement 

 over their own. For that matter, even the 

 English did not adopt their own gun harpoon 

 until well along in the nineteenth century. 



The English and Dutch did not have an en- 

 tirely happy time owing to troubles with one 

 another and ■with the French, and if a whaler 

 secured a cargo of oil, it was by no means cer- 

 tain that he would reach home with it. In 

 those days the line between privateering and 

 piracy was none too sharply drawn and often 

 the only rule followed was 



That they should take who have the power, 

 And they should keep who can. 



Spanish and French, Dutch and English, 

 with some participation by Danes and Ger- 

 mans, Americans and Norwegians, each in turn 

 led in the whale fishery and each has played, 

 or is playing, an important part in the slaugh- 

 ter of the whale, and Mr. Jenkins tells us of 

 them all. 



The book opens with a chapter on Whales 

 and their Classification, their habits and haunts, 

 which is followed by one on the Economics of 

 "Whaling, including under this head the meth- 

 ods employed, utilization of products and the 

 possibility of conservation. In discussing the 

 measures that have been proposed or taken to 

 preserve the whales, Mr. Jenkins seems inclined 

 to give some credence to the argument of the 

 whalers that the industry will in a way regu- 

 late itself, that long before whales can be 

 exterminated, their capture — on account of 

 lessened numbers — will cease to be profitable. 

 This, as shown by experience in other "fish- 

 eries" and even by the collapse of Newfound- 

 land whaling after a few years of prosperity, 

 is a fallacy, as is the statement made in con- 

 nection with the Natal whaling, and often 

 used with all manner of statistics, that there 

 is a tendency for the whales to abandon the 

 coast altogether. Altogether is quite correct; 

 as in the case of seals and walruses, the aban- 

 donment is due to the fact that the whales 

 have been killed off and put beyond all hope 

 of return. To illustrate, it may be said that 

 Right Whales were formerly common off the 

 eastern end of Long Island but that during 

 the past decade only two have been seen and 

 these fortunately escaped. 



While steel and the automobile have tem- 

 porarily stayed the extermination of the Bow- 

 head since his "bone" is no longer in demand 

 for whips and corsets, the species increases 

 but slowly at the best and some new demand 

 may blot the species out of existence. 



So we subscribe most heartily to a previous 

 statement, on page 47, that "in no ease has the 

 cessation of whaling taken place sufficiently 

 soon to render possible the recovery of the 

 whales to any appreciable extent." 



About the only real protection that has been 

 given whales is the prohibition, by the Nor- 

 wegian government, of whaling in some locali- 

 ties and the establishment of close seasons in 

 others. This has been done in response to 

 the protests of fishermen whose reasons are 

 set forth in the Last Phase of Whaling. 



There is an occasional little slip here and 

 there, as where it is said a superior kind of oil 

 was found in the head of the Sperm Whale, 



