FISHERIES.
the 10th October 1814 and 1815, will show the ad The price of cod fish is, per quintal, from 158. to 25s. ; of salmon, from 65s. to 80s. the tierce; of train oil, from L.26 to L.34 the tun, and seal oil generally about L.36 the tun. In 1814 the number of passengers that went over from England, Ireland, and Jersey, amounted to 2800 ; in 1815, they were 6735. In 1814, the population of residents amount.. ed to 35,952 ; in 1815, to 40,568. In 1814, the summer inhabitants were 45,718 ; in 1815, they were 55,284. The number of houses on the whole island was about 5000, and the number of acres under cultivation about 6000.
If we are to credit the information which Alfred is said to have received from Octer, the Norwegians were engaged in the whale-fishery so early as the year 890. The story, however, is not very probable. The first people known to carry it on as a regular occupation were the Biscayans, who, when the Eng lish first-embarked in this fishery, towards the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century, were always engaged as part of the crew. It continued to be carried on by the Russian and the East' India Company for some years, but with no great success; sufficient, however, to induce the Dutch to attempt it. After them came the Danes, the Hamburghers, and the French, all of whom were finally driven out, or nearly so, by the Dutch. At this time the whales were so plentiful in all the bays of Spitzbergen, that the practice then was to boil the oil on shore ; but when, in process of time, these large fish became more scarce, or were scared from the shore, the fishery was carried on at a dis. tance from the land, when it was found necessary to bring home the solid blubber in casks. cumstance was a farther discouragement to the Eng lish merchants, who, for more than a century, relin quished the whale-fishery altogether. The South Sea Company, however, revived it in the early part of the eighteenth century, when Parliament granted a bounty of 20s. per ton on all British ships of 200
tons and upwards, which was afterwards increased to 40s. ,per ton. This, however, by 26th Geo.
was again reduced to 30s., but several encourage ments were added for the prosecution of the whale fishery by able and expert seamen. The harpooners, the line-managers, and the boat-steerers, were not only protected from impress during the voyage, but were allowed to engage in the coal and coasting trade unmolested in the winter months, with other privileges granted by that and subsequent acts.
The decline of the Dutch whale-fishery kept pace with the decline of their herring-fishery; and from the same cause, the decline of their maritime power, which had reciprocally supported each other. English now began to carry on the fishery with great vigour on both sides of Greenland, so as to make it an object of great national importance, both as a nursery for excellent seamen, and as a source of public wealth. On the termination of the late war, the owners of ships employed in the northern whale fishery, alarmed at the apprehension of the Dutch and French reviving the fishery, but more so at the opening of the ports on the continent, put forth a statement of the amount and extent of the fishery, from which it would appear that 7500 men and boys are employed in it as sailors ; that, by act of Parlia ment, the owners are required to take six appren tices for each ship of 300 tons, by which about 900 youths are constantly training for the future service of the country, and that about 200 of them com plete the term of their servitude every year, when, such as are not boat-steerers, harpooners, or line managers, become liable to serve in the navy ; that not less than 300 men are also taken annually from employments on land, or from the river trade, most of whom, after two years, are competent to serve in must seriously injure the South Sea fishery, as sperm was very commonly used for domestic purposes.