The common whale oil finds a market in the West Indies, Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal. The greatest part of the spermaceti oil is carried to Great Britain. The late war between the United States and Great Britain has again almost annihilated the cod and whale fisheries.[36] While in the years previous to the restrictive system and the war, the fisheries furnished articles for exportation to an amount of more than three millions of dollars, in 1814 the exports of the produce of the fisheries is reduced to the sum of 188,000 dollars. [36] Twenty-four whalemen were taken by the British in the late war. No. III. During the publication of this little work, I was favoured, through the medium of a friend, with some very important remarks made by a Gentleman of great nautical skill and experience, in the year 1814, on board his Majesty’s ship Sybyll, while in the North Seas, for the protection of the Greenland fishery. The first point to which he alludes, is the variation of the compass; and, respecting it, he observes, “Being anxious that every thing possible should be done for the improvement of navigation, I determined, while in those high latitudes, to take every opportunity of observing to what extent the variation of the compass might be affected by the ship’s course. A paper containing Captain Flinders’s observations on the same subject, had previously been sent to me by the Lords of the Admiralty; and as these observations had chiefly been made in high southern latitudes, it became doubly important to ascertain whether the same laws were followed in high northern latitudes. Experience has completely proved that they are; and, in fact, it is some years since I ascertained that the course down the English Channel, just taking the ship clear of head-lands, the opposite one up Channel would run the ship on the French coast. “In order to render the result of my observations on this subject as clear as possible, I have selected a few, and inserted them in the order they were taken. The correctness of them may be relied on, being all calculated by two persons, examined by a third, and the whole taken by myself.