190 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 



houses of which were all previously prepared in Holland, on the isle of Amster- 

 dam), on the northern shore of Spitzbergen, to- which they gave the appropriate 

 name of Smeerenberg (from smeeren, to melt, and herg, a mountain). This was the 

 grand rendezvous of the Dutch whale -ships, and was amply provided with boilers, 

 tanks, and every sort of apparatus required for preparing the oil and bone. But 

 this was not all. The whale- ships were attended with a number of provision -ships, 

 the cargoes of which were landed at Smeerenberg, which abounded during the busy 

 season with well -furnished shops, good inns, etc., so that many of the conveniences 

 and enjoyments of Amsterdam were found within about eleven degrees of the Pole ! 

 It is particularly mentioned that the sailors and others were every morning supplied 

 with what a Dutchman regards as a very great luxury, hot rolls for breakfast. 

 Batavia and Smeerenberg were founded nearly at the same period, and it was for a 

 considerable time doubted whether the latter was not the more important establish- 

 ment. {De Reste, Histoire cles Peches, etc., tome i, p. 42.) 



"During the flourishing period of the Dutch fishery, the quantity of oil made 

 in the north was so great that it could not be carried on by the whale -ships, and 

 every year vessels were sent out in ballast to assist in importing the produce of 

 the fishery. But the same cause which had destroyed the fishery of the Biscayans 

 I'uined that which was carried on in the immediate neighborhood of Spitzbergen. 

 Whales became gradually less common, and more and more difficult to catch. 

 They retreated first to the open seas, and then to the great banks of ice on the 

 eastern coast of Greenland. When the site of the fishery had thus been removed 

 to a very great distance from Spitzbergen, it was found most economical to send 

 the blubber direct to Holland. Smeerenberg was, in consequence, totally deserted, 

 and its position is now with difficulty discernible. When in the most flourishing 

 state, toward 1680, the Dutch whale-fishery employed about two hundred and sixty 

 ships and fourteen thousand sailors." 



Frederic Marten, who made a voyage to Spitzbergen and Greenland during the 

 summer of 1671, gives a quaint account of the British whalers at that period, from 

 which we extract the following : 



"We set sail the 15th of April, 1671, about noon, from the island of Elbe. 

 The name of the ship was Jonas in the Whale, Peter Peterson, of Frisland, master." 

 Having arrived at Spitzbergen, the writer continues: "On the 5th of June, in 

 the forenoon, it was moderately cold and sunshiny, but toward noon darkish and 

 cloudy, with snow and great frost. We saw daily many ships sailing about the ice. 

 I observed that as they passed by one another, they hailed one another, crying 

 HoUa! and asked each other how many fish they had caught, but would not stick 



