232 
Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
opinion that from the middle of May to the 
beginning of January the fishery in about the 
river Derwent would be very productive, a 
single vessel might procure 300 tuns ; after that 
season the weaning of the calves takes place, 
and the fish go north. 
In a valuable work, “ The Early History of 
New Zealand,” published by Brett, of Auck¬ 
land, New Zealand, the author of that portion 
of it from earliest times to 1840, Mr. R. A. A. 
Sherrin, gives some interesting particulars of 
the development of the whale fisheries. From 
this book we learn that, in 1808, whaling on 
the New Zealand coast was in a flourishing 
state, and that the Grand Sachem (Whipping, 
master) was about the first of a large fleet of 
American whalers which now began to frequent 
these waters. In the following year the Speke, 
Captain Hington, arrived in Sydney Cove with 
150 tuns of black, and 20 tuns of sperm oil, 
this being the first recorded instance of the 
capture of the black whale. 
The whaling grounds in the South Pacific are 
chiefly known as the “ On Shore Ground,” 
taking in the whole extent of ocean along the 
coast of Chili and Peru from Juan Fernandez 
