NUMBER of gallons of Whale Oil Exported from United States. gallons. gallous. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. Russia. 16,733 12,315 Spanish West Indies.. 13,685 18,349 46,609 84,413 70,257 20,287 17,541 1,546 9,131 507 1,034 1,819 6,805 71,999 26,248 22,187 38,348 6,567 Portugal Madeira.. West Indies (generally) Europe.... ..... gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons, gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. 6,797 Prussia .... .... Sweden Swedish West Indies 22,736 15,598 66,689 36,548 56,241 192 33 59 3,061 4,880 1,150 Denmark and Norway. 80,156 26,984 gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons, gallons. gallons. gallous. gallons. gallons, 27,287 4,831 485,110 17,467 25,196 30,679 39,001 42,636 63,552 685 78,781 8,892 876,492 489,907 1,168,621 919,413 Great Britain British West Indies....... Hamburg, Bremen, &c.... France 566 516,551 690,265 7,669 .... 27,547 23,736 3,359 3,116 2,820 27,967 4,025 8,563 72,031 gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. Denmark and Norway.. Danish West Indies. Denmark and Norway.. 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1821 1822 1823 gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. French West Indies. Spanish West Indies. 1,507 120 62 Portugal. 3,135 Madeira. West Indies (generally). 818 Cuba.... Hayti Brazil.... 1,052 1,212 600 1826 gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. 773 63 Great Britain.. 223 1,392 247,529 2,488 1,896 2,655 180 450 186 145 137 207 59 Portugal 1,883 Madeira... Cuba... Brazil.. 12,412 19,023 23,844 2,630 3,194 1,007 1,277 COUNTRIES to which Whalebone has been Exported from 1834 to 1843, inclusive. 60,145 28,828 24,956 1 2,967 49,414 58,355 30 29 1,839 lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. 43,552 23,588 340,878 3,532 11,540 36,931 187,185 529 420 50 557,460 295,119 : : 1,892,259 1,271,383 918,280 898,773 310,379 259,148 225,382 257,481 NUMBER of Gallons of Spermaceti and Whale Train Oil Exported from the United States to the following Countries: Prussia, spermaceti........ whale...... Hause Towns, spermaceti.... gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. gallons. " 3,088 66,466, 375,754 345,547 467,342 1,353 6,162 652,536 1,392,321 1,412,515'1,108,399 1,123,950 735 4,730 3,382 4,674 849 182 Holland, spermaceti.. 344 whale.. 490,501 787 6,136 338,903 1,011,946 577,206 902,706 1,203,191 1,165,169 512,249 1,999,677 1,255,885 1,648,682 whale 51,938 68,177 78,548 39 Mexico, spermaceti... whale........ British America, spermaceti. whale.. Denmark, spermaceti.. whale Dutch West Indies, sperm... Sweden and Norway, sperm. whale... whale 78,376 20,963 1501 12,403 33 13,347 200 91,414 Brazil, spermaceti.... United Kingdom, spermaceti. 88,542 whale.. 205,194) 12,086 11 837 6,795 202 221,891 370 50,891 France, spermaceti.. whale.... Other places, spermaceti.. 50,892 29,167 3,201 35,543 103,369 American System of Whale Fishing.-When sailors' wages are high at New York or Boston, they are difficult to be procured; for the whalefishers are paid by lays instead of wages. These lays are of course dependant upon various circumstances; but, generally, the captain's lay is one-seventeenth part of all which is obtained; the first officer's, one-twenty-eighth part; the second officer's, one-forty-fifth; the third officer's, onesixtieth; the boat-steerer draws from an eightieth to a hundred-and-twentieth; and the common sailor before the mast, from a hundred-and-twentieth to a hundred-and-fiftieth, according to his experience, activity, and strength. On the outward passage, the crew are divided into two watches, similar to those which exist in the merchant service. The American whaling ships generally pass to the Pacific, by the way of Cape Horn; some sail by the eastern route, south of New Holland; others pursue the whales in the Indian Ocean, the vicinity of Madagascar, and the Red Sea, reach the Pacific through the straits of Timor, between New Guinea and the Pelew Islands, and sail to the coast of Japan. Every part of the Pacific is explored by the hardy and bold American whalefishers, and many new discoveries have been made by them. The right whale is of the largest class. These were taken by the Americans as far back as in 1761, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; they are said to have produced 230 barrels of oil; and as the vessels then employed did not exceed sixty tons' burden, a single whale made a full cargo. The bone from a whale of this size, sometimes weighed 3000 lbs., each of which was worth a dollar, and the slabs were frequently ten feet in length. Their food consists of a species of animal not larger than a spider, and similar in form, called "bret," which swim near the surface of the water, and tinge it for acres with a reddish cast. The difference between the right whale and the sperm is known at a distance by the manner of spouting. The right whale has two spout holes, and throws the water in two perpendicular streams, that widen as they rise. The "hump-back" and the "finback" spout in the same manner. The sperm-whale spouts in a single stream, thrown forward from its head, at an angle of about forty-five degrees. A sperm whale, about sixty feet long, is usually about twenty-four feet in circumference; the distance from one point of the tail to the other is about seven feet. The length of the fin is about three feet and a half; about fourteen feet being the length of the jaw-bone. The spout-holes, or nostrils, are situated about ten inches from the end of the nose; from which to the eyes, the distance is not above fourteen feet. The skin is about the thickness of one inch; the blubber, on the ribs, about five inches, and upon the breast nine inches; the blubber being about one-sixth part of the whole of the animal. Whales of eighty feet long, have the blubber thicker in proportion. The head of the sperm whale is in size equal to one-third part of the size of the body, has a blunt appearance, with a front like the breakwater of a ship, and at its junction with the neck, there is a large hump or bunch. From what might be named the shoulder, is the thickest part of the body, about one-third of its length, until what is called the "small," or beginning of the tail, where there is another hump seen, and from which a smaller ridge runs down towards the extremity, to the "flukes" or fins of the tail. The "flukes" consist of two triangular, horizontal fins, about six feet long, and twelve or fourteen feet broad, in those of the largest size. The great power of the muscles of these flukes, renders them a formidable means of defence, and an object of terror to the whaleman. In the upper part of the head there is a large triangular cavity, which is called the "case," containing the oily fluid that after death is congealed into that yellow, granulated mass, which we name spermaceti. Beneath this case and the nostril, there is a thick mass of substance, elastic in its nature, which is called the "junk,' and formed of a cellular tissue, and infiltrated with fine sperm oil and spermaceti. The mouth extends throughout the whole length of the head, containing in the lower jaw forty-two teeth of formidable dimensions, and when open, it is as capacious as a middle-sized room, and the roof is covered with a kind of coarse hair, through which it strains the food. The throat, unlike that of the Greenland whale, is large enough to admit the body of a full-grown man. The eyes are small, situated far back on each side of the head. They have eyelids, the lower ones are moveable. A short distance behind the head are the swimming fins, which appear to serve them not only for the purpose of swimming but to hold their young. The size of a full-grown sperm whale is estimated to be about eighty-four feet in length; the depth of the head from eight to nine feet, and the breadth five to six feet; the swimming fins about six feet long and three broad; and the circumference of the body thirty-six feet. The skin of the sperm whale is smooth and without scales. The colour of the skin is dark over the greater part of its surface, but especially so on the upper part of the head, the back, and near the flukes, where it is quite black; on the sides it is of a lighter shade, and on the breast silvery gray. Aged "bulls," as they are termed by whalemen, frequently have a portion of gray on the nose, above the fore part of the upper jaw, and these are then said by whalers to be "gray-headed." The blubber encircles the body, and is termed by the sailors "the blanket." It is of a light yellow colour, and when melted down, becomes the sperm oil. The ordinary food of this species of whale appears to be a sort of sepia, or cuttle-fish, called the squid. The ordinary motion of the whale is slow, swimming, as they do, at the rate of from two to four miles an hour; but they can go through the water at from ten to twelve miles an hour. "The sperm whales herd in large scools, the females being protected by from one to three of the other species. The males appear jealous of intrusion, and fight with great power to prevent it. The large whales generally go alone in search of food, and when seen in company, are supposed to be travelling from one 'feeding ground' to the other. These large whales being quite incautious, are easily overcome, and, even after the plunge of the harpoon, often lay exposed to their destroyers like a log of wood, scarcely appearing to feel the blow. Sometimes, however, they are found possessing extraordinary courage, doing dreadful havoc with their principal weapons, their jaws and tails. They breed at all seasons, producing one, and sometimes two, at a birth, the size of their cubs being, when first born, from twelve to fourteen feet. The females are much smaller than the other sex, being not more than one-fifth part as great. These manifest strong attachment to their young, taking them under their fins, and urging them to escape from danger. Their attachment to each other is no less remarkable, and, when one is wounded, its companions will remain around her to the last, so that they often fall a sacrifice to their affection. The attachment, on the part of the young, towards its parent is no less extraordinary, and they are often seen around the ship for hours after their parents have fallen a prey to the harpoon. The young males swim in scools until they are about three-fourths grown, when they separate, and seek their prey upon the ocean alone. The difference between them and the female droves is evident and striking, from the fact that when one of their number is struck, it is left to its fate, scarcely an instance being known of its companions having heaved to.' They are cunning and shy, and, accordingly, are more difficult to take, as, from their vigour and activity, great despatch is necessary, in order to give them no opportunity to recover from the terror and fright occasioned by the blow of the harpoon. One singular circumstance may here be mentioned, that the whale, both great and small, appears to have the power of communicating intelligence to its kind, when any danger approaches, for the distance of four, five, or even seven miles; but the mode in which this is done has never been ascertained. "The 'fin-back' whale is an animal of larger size than the sperm, but so uncertain and active in its motions as to elude the most expert whale fishermen. "The right whale,' another species, which, with the sperm whale, constitutes the most prominent staple of our whale fishery, we have considered. It is similar in its general form to the sperm, and possesses the same general habits, although the oil extracted from it is of inferior quality. There are also other species, such as the razor-back, the broadnosed whale, and the beaked whale; and species of a smaller kind, to which we shall merely allude. "The wide domain of the ocean is the home of the whale, and we find it spouting in every latitude of the sea, from the icebergs of Greenland to the African coast. It is admitted, however, that the sperm whale is seldom seen in the colder latitudes, confining itself to the more genial climates; while the Greenland whale, which is of extraordinary size, appears to delight in tumbling among the mountains of ice which float in the region of the north pole. We find the whale fishermen hurling the harpoon upon the coast of New Zealand, as well as New Holland, near the shores of Peru and Madagascar, Chili and California, Japan and the China sea, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. It is, indeed, |