The animals of the whale tribe are of great use to mankind in a commercial view. They are pursued by the inhabitants of nearly all the maritime countries of Europe, and to us are not merely a source of profit, but, from the whale fishery requiring many ships, are the means of training a great number of seamen. To this fishery it is that we are indebted for those two valuable articles--_whale_ or _train oil_, and _whalebone_. The fat of all the whales has the name of _blubber_, and is principally found beneath the skin, to the depth of ten or twelve inches. Its use, to the animals, appears to be for the double purpose of poising their bodies, and keeping off the immediate contact of the water from the flesh, the continued cold of which, in the frozen climates of the North, would tend to chill the blood. The _whalebone_ supplies, in these animals, the place of teeth, for catching and securing their food. It is attached to the upper jaw, and is arranged in thin plates or blades, sometimes near seven hundred in number, and parallel to each other on both sides of the mouth. The largest blades measure from ten to fifteen feet in length, and twelve or fifteen inches in width; and they all terminate in a kind of fringe of considerable length, which has the appearance of the blades split into innumerable small fibres. A large whale sometimes yields a ton and half of whalebone. The number of ships employed in the whale fishery is very great; but, in consequence of the incessant pursuit of these animals for the last two centuries, their numbers have been greatly diminished. One of the most fortunate years that ever was known was 1697, when the following ships entered the bay of Greenland: 15 from Bremen, which had taken 190 50 from Hamburgh 515 121 from Holland 1252 ---- Total number of whales taken 1957 ---- The year 1814 was a singularly prosperous one to the British whale fishery: 76 ships, fitted out from different ports of this country, obtained 1437 whales, besides seals, &c. The British ships, during four years, ending with 1817, returned with 5030 whales, which produced 54,508 tons of oil, and 2697 tons of whalebone. The season for the whale-fishery commences in May, and continues through the months of June and July; but the ships must come away before the end of August, otherwise they might be blocked up and destroyed by the ice.