re and system, two line-tubs, each holding from
100 to 200 fathoms of fine manila rope, one and one-half inches round, and
of a texture like yellow silk; three harpoons, wood and iron, measuring
about eight feet over all, and weighing about ten pounds; three lances of
the finest steel, with wooden handles, in all about eight feet long; a keg
of drinking water and one of biscuits; a bucket and piggin for bailing, a
small spade, knives, axes, and a shoulder bomb-gun. It can be understood
easily that six men, maneuvering in so crowded a boat, with a huge whale
flouncing about within a few feet, a line whizzing down the center, to be
caught in which meant instant death, and the sea often running high, had
need to keep their wits about them.

Harpoons and lances are kept ground to a razor edge, and, propelled by the
vigorous muscles of brawny whalemen, often sunk out of sight through the
papery skin and soft blubber of the whale. Beyond these primitive
appliances the whale fishery never progressed very far. It is true that in
later days a shoulder-gun hurled the harpoon, explosive bombs replaced the
lances, the ships were in some cases fitted with auxiliary steam-power,
and in a few infrequent instances steam launches were employed for
whale-boats. But progress was not general. The old-fashioned whaling tubs
kept the seas, while the growing scarcity of the whales and the blow to
the demand for oil dealt by the discovery of petroleum, checked the
development of the industry. Now the rows of whalers rotting at New
Bedford's wharves, and the somnolence of Nantucket, tell of its virtual
demise.

These two towns were built upon the prosperity of the whale fishery. When
it languished their fortunes sunk, never to rise to their earlier heights,
though cotton-spinning came to occupy the attention of the people of New
Bedford, while Nantucket found a placid prosperity in entertaining summer
boarders. And even during the years when whales were plentiful, and their
oil still in good demand, there came periods of interruption to the trade
and poverty to its followers. The Revolution first closed the seas to
American ships for seven long years, and at its close the whalers found
their best market--England--still shut against them. Moreover, the high
seas during the closing years of the eighteenth and the opening of the
nineteenth centuries were not as to-day, when a pirate is as scarce a
beast of prey as a highwayman on Hounslow Heath. T