130 
WHALE. 
cordingly are fastened to the shrouds, where they 
discharge a considerable quantity of oil, which is 
caught in tubs placed under them for that purpose* 
When the blubber has been three or four days in 
the hold, they chop it into small pieces, and put it 
into the casks through the bung-holes. 
A whale will yield from thirty to seventy butts of 
blubber, and will be worth from four hundred to a 
thousand pounds. 
What induces the men to exert themselves in 
the capture of these animals is the premiums which 
their employers give, from the captain down to 
the men who row the boats, on every whale that is 
taken. 
The fishery begins in May and ends in August, 
when they must return at all events, on account of 
the ice which would otherwise hem them in. When 
they have made a prosperous voyage, they return 
in June or July; and a ship of three hundred tons 
burthen, when full of blubber, will produce more 
than five thousand pounds. 
It appears from Mr. Anderson’s account, that the 
Dutch, during the space of forty-six years previous 
to the year 1721 , had employed 588(1 ships in this 
fishery, and caught 32$0 7 whales; which, valued on 
an average at five hundred pounds each, will amount 
to above 1 6 , 000 , 000 /. sterling. 
The flesh and fat of the whale are eaten by many 
of the northern nations, and considered as a deli- 
cacy. However, we are not much inclined to agree 
