The Whaling Industry

The trials and tribulations of the whaling industry defy the meager jusr tice which the resources of a single paragraph affords. A volume might covei the subject. The difftculty about whaling is the uncertainty of whales. These mammals decline to be regulated by any signal service reporter and refuse in their migrations to respect precedent or the ambitious of the arctic oil works. The consequence is a. skipper may cruise the northern latitudes, trying conclusions with icebergs and polar bears, endangering life and limb in a mangy old tub, encotmtering the pcrils of storm, wave and Eskimo, and all without sighting a spout of capturing a yard of whalebone. I listeued recently to the mournful reminiscences of Captain Green, a hardy mariner of much experience, who after many years of laboi-ing at the oil industry retired to a raisin ranch at Fresno. Owing to the decline of raisins, however, he took to the ocean again, euipped a vessel and sailed into the latitudes of winter. There he found an antique steam whaler, the Eeindeer, and for two long and weary years they have kept each other company in the close knit sisterhood of misfortune. Once during the second year they sighted a whale, and Captain Green encompassed its capture. A bowhead it was, and no great prize. Tiring of cold, salt and ill luck, the twain decided at last to go south for rest and provisions. They started together, when something broke on the Reindeer, and she was condemned to delay until the damage might be renaired. How the gallant skipper cursed the rnisiorrane wmcn aeiumeu him among the icebergs ! How he railed at f ate! Two days later a school of whales hove in sight. The captain and crew dashed upon them and in four hours had killed a dozen giants, which meant at ruling prices at least $60,000 vvorth of whalebones. However, it of ten happens in the arctic, as in the world, that the darkest moment of misfortune is the dusk that preceded the advent of