Whale FISHERY. See BALÆNA, CETOLOGY INDEX.
Whales are chiefly caught in the north seas; the largest sort are found about Greenland or Spitzbergen. At the first discovery of this country, whales not being used to be disturbed, frequently came into the very bays, and were accordingly killed almost close to the shore; so that the blubber being cut off was immediately boiled into oil on the spot. The ships in these times took in nothing but the pure oil and the whalebone, and all the business was executed in the country; by which means a ship could bring home the product of many more whales than she can, according to the present method of conducting this trade. The fishery also was then so plentiful, that they were obliged sometimes to send other ships to fetch off the oil they had made, the quantity being more than the fishing ships could bring away. But time and change of circumstances have shifted the situation of this trade. The ships coming in such numbers from Holland, Denmark, Hamburg, and other northern countries, all intruders upon the English, who were the first discoverers of Greenland, the whales were disturbed, and gradually, as other fish often do, forsaking the place, were not to be killed so near the shore as before: but are now found, and have been so ever since, in the openings and space among the ice, where they have deep water, and where they go sometimes a great many leagues from the shore.
The whale fishery begins in May, and continues all June and July; but whether the ships have good or bad success, they must come away, and get clear of the ice by the end of August; so that in the month of September at farthest they may be expected home; but a ship that meets with a fortunate and early fishery in May may return in June or July.
But, for the manner of taking whales, and for a farther account of the whale fishery, as a trade, see CETOLOGY.