1. Small vessels, principally schooners, though barks and brigs are included, cruise in the North and South Atlantic Oceans. They are fitted for six to eighteen months, and even two years. 2. Ships and barks that cruise in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans are usually fitted for two to three years. 3. Ships and barks that cruise on the Peru coast, or Off Shore ground, are fitted for two to four years. 4. Ochotsk Sea and Arctic Ocean whalers are fitted for two, three, and four years. 5. New Zealand whalers, sperm and right, are fitted for two, three, and four years. THE TIME WHEN WHALING VESSELS SAIL TO THEIR RESPECTIVE WHALE GROUNDS. Ships and barks fitted for the North Pacific, the Ochotsk Sea, the Kodiak, or the Arctic Ocean, usually leave our ports in the fall of the year, so as to make the passage of the Horn, or Cape of Good Hope, in the southern summer; these ships will arrive at the Sandwich Islands in March or April, remain in port a week or two, recruit, and sail to the north. On their return from the north in October and November, and sometimes as late as December, they usually touch at the islands again, take in a fresh supply of provisions, it may be ship their oil home, and sail to some other whale ground in a more southern latitude, either for sperm or right whaling, or both, and continue this cruise until the season comes around for them to go to the north again. The first is called the "regular season" for whaling, and the second "between seasons." Ships that have completed their voyages, and intend returning home, when they leave the Ochotsk or Arctic, generally touch at the islands, or some other intermediate port, for recruits, and arrive on our coast some time in the spring months, and even as early as February or March, though not generally. The great majority of the ships sail in the autumn, and the largest arrivals are usually in the spring. THE LENGTH OF A WHALE VOYAGE IS DETERMINED BY THE NUMBER OF SEASONS. One season in the Ochotsk or Arctic, including the outward and homeward passages, consumes _one year and a half_. Two seasons at the north, including the passages outward and home, and one "between seasons," require _two and a half years_. Three seasons, including the passages and two "between seasons," will require _three and a half years_. Sperm whalemen, who are not governed by these seasons and between seasons, as right whalers are, are absent from home three and a half and four years, and sometimes longer. Indeed, the success or ill success of whalemen in obtaining oil determines essentially the length of voyages. CHAPTER V.