It is treating these with sufficient respect to place them on an
equal footing with the estimate of the person before alluded to, and
to suppose the truth half way between them. We will call then the
present consumption of France only 60,000 quintals, or 3750 ton a
year. This consumption is increasing fast as the practice of
lighting cities is becoming more general, and the superior advantages
of lighting them with whale oil are but now beginning to be known.
What do the fisheries of France furnish? she has employed this
year 15. vessels in the Southern, and 2 in the Northern fishery,
carrying 4500 tons in the whole or 265 each on an average. The
English ships, led by Nantuckois as well as the French, have as I am
told never averaged, in the Southern fishery, more than one fifth of
their burthen, in the best year. The 15 ships of France, according
to this ground of calculation, and supposing the present to have been
one of the best years, should have brought, one with another, one
fifth of 265 tons, or 53 tons each. But we are told they have
brought near the double of that, to wit 100 tons each and 1500 tons
in the whole. Supposing the 2. Northern vessels to have brought home
the cargo which is common from the Northern fishery, to wit, 25 tons
each, the whole produce this year will then be 1550 tons.
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