Behind all these is the whale, whose corporal dimensions fitly represent the space he occupies in the fisheries of the world, hardly diminished by petroleum or gas. On this extended coast and in all these seas he is at home. Here is his retreat and play-ground. This is especially the case with the right-whale, or, according to whalers, “the _right_ whale to catch,” with bountiful supply of oil and bone, who is everywhere throughout this region, appearing at all points and swarming its waters. D’Wolf says, “We were frequently surrounded by them.”[210] Meares says, “Abundant as the whales may be in the vicinity of Nootka, they bear no comparison to the numbers seen on the northern part of the coast.”[211] At times they are very large. Kotzebue reports them at Oonalaska of fabulous proportions, called by the natives _Aliamak_, and so long “that the people engaged at the opposite ends of the fish must halloo very loud to be able to understand each other.”[212] Another whale, known as the bow-head, is so much about Kadiak that it is sometimes called the Kadiak whale. The valuable sperm-whale, whose head and hunch are so productive in spermaceti, belongs to a milder sea, but he sometimes strays to the Aleutians. The narwhal, with his long tusk of ivory, out of which was made the famous throne of the early Danish kings, belongs to the Frozen Ocean; but he, too, strays into the straits below. As no sea is now _mare clausum_, all these may be pursued by a ship under any flag, except directly on the coast and within its territorial limit. And yet the possession of this coast as a commercial base must necessarily give to its people peculiar advantages in the pursuit. What is done now under difficulties will be done then with facilities, such at least as neighborhood supplied to the natives even with their small craft. In our country the whale fishery has been a great and prosperous commerce, counted by millions. It has yielded considerable gains, and sometimes large fortunes. The town of New Bedford, one of the most beautiful in the world, has been enriched by this fishery. And yet you cannot fail to remark the impediments which the business has been compelled to overcome. The ship was fitted on the Atlantic coast for a voyage of two or three years, and all the crew entered into partnership with regard to the oil. Traversing two oceans, separated by a stormy cape, it reaches at last its distant destination in these northern seas, and commences its tardy work, interrupted by occasional rest and opportunity to refit at the Sandwich Islands. This now will be changed, as the ship sallies forth from friendly harbors near the game which is its mighty chase. * * * * *