CURRENTS AND WHALING. 
493 
generally recruit in the bay of Talcahuana, or in the port of Payta, in 
Peru, and are ready to take up the season on the “ off-shore ground” 
in November. 
Vessels leaving the United States in the beginning of summer, 
would do better to take the route round Cape Horn, reaching Chili or 
Peru in time to recruit before the month of November, at which time 
they repair to the “off-shore ground,” where they remain for one, two, 
or three months; thence pass to the Marquesas Islands and to the 
westward of them, and thence to the west, along the equator, as far as 
the Mulgrave Islands and the coast of Japan. Returning, they proceed 
to the northwest coast of America, California, and finally reach the 
Sandwich .Islands to recruit by the months of October or November. 
Other vessels pass directly from the “ off-shore ground” to the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the Sandwich Islands, where they spend the months of 
February, March, and a part of April; they then proceed to the 
latitude of 30°, and continue their cruising on each side of that parallel 
between the meridians of 145° and 165° W., until October, when they 
repair to the Hawaiian Islands to recruit. 
It will readily be seen that there is ample room for a vast fleet to 
operate in these numerous and extensive spaces, without the vessels 
interfering with each other, and many more might be advantageously 
employed. An opinion has indeed gained ground within a few years 
that the whales are diminishing in numbers; but this surmise, as far 
as I have learned from the numerous inquiries, does not appear to be 
well founded. 
They have indeed become wilder, or as some of the whalers express 
it, “ more scary,” and, in consequence, not so easy to capture; but if 
we consider the numbers that continue to be yearly taken, there will, 
I think, be no reason to suppose that any great decrease has occurred. 
On an average, it requires fifty whales to fill a ship, and it would 
therefore take about five thousand whales annually, to supply the 
quantity of oil that is imported. This would appear but a small pro¬ 
portionate number, if these animals were as prolific as our herds on 
shore, when it is considered that they have a feeding-ground of twenty 
millions of square miles. 
The number of right whales captured is to the spermaceti in the 
proportion of about two to one. The former are principally found on 
the coasts, in the bays, and even in the harbours, and are far more 
numerous than the sperm whale. They are pursued to the greatest 
advantage in small vessels. They frequent the coast of Chili during 
the summer season, from October to March, and are to be found on the 
northwest coast of America and that of California, during the northern 
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