340 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XI. 
and 49 tons of whalebone ; worth altogether about 
50,000/. in the London market. 
The success of the fishery varies, of course, every 
season ; but there is every reason to think that it is on 
the decline. The whales are, doubtless, unnecessarily 
thinned by the practice of killing the cows, and even 
the young calves, who do not survive the practice of 
making fast to them in order to catch their mother. 
The shoals seem to set in from the southward late 
in April or in the beginning of May, and are seen 
first in Cook's Strait, at Palliser Bay and Port Un- 
derwood. They then proceed up the Strait, preferring 
the north shore, which is generally shoal, and thus 
passing close to Mana and Kapiti. They fill the 
shoal " Motherly" bay extending along nearly 150 
miles of coast, between Kapiti and Cape Egmont, 
and are also seen for some distance north of the Sugar- 
loaf Islands. In the " Motherly" bay, as it is called, 
because they resort to it for calving, they have never yet 
been disturbed ; and I have seen them in great num- 
bers, basking outside the surf, from the coast between 
Manawatu and Patea. 
I cordially join with those who consider that all 
shore-whaling should be forbidden, as I am convinced 
that a much greater advantage would result to those 
who profit by the trade, were ships fitted out from 
our Australasian colonies, and the fish allowed to visit, 
unmolested, the calving-bays to which they resort 
during the period of gestation. A considerable waste 
of time and expense would be obviated, were the 
whalers fitted out from the ports of Australia and 
New Zealand which are close to the whaling- 
grounds, and other ships employed to bring the pro- 
duce home. A whaler sails from England, and 
returns, perhaps full, after three years. She has only 
