In the narrow waters of the
Greenland seas, with quite a small number of vessels seeking, it
is hardly possible for a whale of any size to escape being seen;
but in the open ocean a goodly fleet may cruise over a space of a
hundred thousand square miles without meeting any of the whales
that may yet be there in large numbers. So that when one hears
talk of the extinction of the cachalot, it is well to bear in
mind that such a thing would take a long series of years to
effect, even were the whaling business waxing instead of waning,
While, however, South Sea whaling is conducted on such old-world
methods as still obtain; while steam, with all the power it gives
of rapidly dealing with a catch, is not made use of, the art and
mystery of the whale-fisher must continually decrease. No such
valuable lubricant has ever been found as sperm oil; but the cost
of its production, added to the precarious nature of the supply,
so handicaps it in the competition with substitutes that it has
been practically eliminated from the English markets, except in
such greatly adulterated forms as to render it a lie to speak of
the mixture as sperm oil at all.
Except to a few whose minds to them are kingdoms, and others who
can hardly be said to have any minds at all, the long monotony of
unsuccessful seeking for whales is very wearying.
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