Chapter I: Preface

The following pages are an abridgment, with some modifications and additions, of the second volume of captain (now the rev. Dr.) Scoresby’s work on the Arctic Regions and Whale-fishery, Edinburgh, 1820; the substance of the former volume having already appeared in this Monthly Series. The second chapter of the work, on the comparative view of the whale-fisheries of different European nations, has been entirely omitted, as less interesting, it is supposed, to the general reader, than the other chapters.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERIES 9

CHAPTER II.

SITUATION OF THE EARLY WHALE-FISHERY—THE
MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS CONDUCTED—AND THE
ALTERATIONS WHICH HAVE TAKEN PLACE 29

CHAPTER III.

ACCOUNT OF THE MODERN WHALE-FISHERY, AS CONDUCTED
AT SPITZBERGEN 40

CHAPTER IV.

ACCOUNT OF THE DAVIS’S STRAIT WHALE-FISHERY,
WITH STATEMENTS OF EXPENSES AND PROFITS OF
A FISHING-SHIP 149

CHAPTER V.

METHOD OF EXTRACTING OIL AND PREPARING WHALE-BONE,
WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THESE ARTICLES,
AND REMARKS ON THE USES TO WHICH THE SEVERAL
PRODUCTS OF THE WHALE-FISHERY ARE APPLIED 157

CHAPTER VI.

NARRATIVE OF PROCEEDINGS ON BOARD THE SHIP
ESK, DURING A WHALE-FISHING VOYAGE TO THE
COAST OF SPITZBERGEN, IN THE YEAR 1816; PARTICULARLY
RELATING TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE
SHIP UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES OF PECULIAR DANGER 175

THE

NORTHERN WHALE-FISHERY.