22 INDEX TO THE PACIFIC ISLANDS. 



The Sperm whale {Physeter macro cephalus) is found between Australia and New 

 Zealand, in Micronesia and around certain groups as the Hawaiian, Marquesas, Fiji 

 and Society Islands. It is much more tropical than the Balsenas, and while the latter 

 prefer the cold polar waters and seldom go beyond the cooler currents of the Pacific, 

 the cachelot is found especially in the tropical region and serves to employ the arctic 

 whalers during the off season in the northern seas. Besides these "nobility" of the 

 whale kind there are lesser lights hunted in the Pacific as in the Atlantic. The 

 humpback {Megaptera boops) is found all along the American coast, at many of the 

 central island groups in the tropics, and off the shores of New Zealand, New Cale- 

 donia and Australia. The Sulphurbottom (Sibbaldia sulphureus), Graywhale (Rha- 

 chianectes glaucus). Pacific finback {Bal&noptera veltfe.ro) and Rorqual (B. davidsoni) 

 are found off Japan, in Bering Sea and off the American coast. 



The pursuit of these great mammals employed many men and much capital as is 

 well known. When in full force in 1846 there were 735 American vessels with an aggre- 

 gate tonnage of 233,133 tons. It may perhaps be forgotten that a whale ship, from the 

 length and hardship of the voyage was regarded as a sort of reform school for rather 

 hardened young offenders who were not amenable to the good influences on land. Hence 

 it happened that many of these quasi convicts escaped to the island Edens and played 

 the part of the serpent. But with these important exceptions I believe the influence 

 of the whaling industry was not one of preponderant evil. Many natives went as 

 sailors on these ships and learned to work as they would never have learned in the 

 dolce far niente of their homes, and it was often the advice of these travelled country- 

 men that opened the door to the white missionary. It is impossible to believe that 

 the influence of the sturdy men who sailed from New 7 Bedford and Nantucket was very 

 bad. Have we not known them in their homes and shaken hands with their worthy 

 descendants? Of the literature on this subject may be mentioned, F. D. Bennett, 

 Whaling Voyage Round thr Globe, /<^jj-j6; Beale, The Sperm Whale and its Captors, 

 1839; United States Eish Cow mission Report, 1875; Scammon, Mammalia oj North- 

 western America, iSSj.. 



Inhabitants and Their Origin. — In no part of the primitive world has 

 there been more confusion of races, more difficulty in exact classification, and, it must 

 be added, more ignorance of people than in the Pacific. We have prehistoric remains 

 in Easter Island, in Tongatabu, in Ponape and in the Marianas of which Ethnologists 

 know no certain origin. The great leaders of Ethnology have measured a few skulls 

 (too often labelled "South Seas") and have compared imperfect vocabularies, and then, 

 with some hesitation it is true, have made family arrangements in which they do not 

 agree among themselves, and which farther knowledge may modify or replace. But 



this is not the place to enter into a discussion of the different systems, nor to follow 



[106] 



