It is difficult to give within brief compass a detailed history of the whale fisheries, and hitherto no attempt has been made to do so in the English language. Since whaling falls into four or five well-defined, and more or less independent, phases it is possible to give a brief, and, allowing for the disconnection of the periods, consecutive account of the main aspects of this important fishery.<br><br>There is no authoritative account of British whaling which can be compared with Müller's "Geschiednis der Noordsche Compagnie" for the Dutch fishery; Brinner's "Die deutsche Gronlandfahrt" for the German whalers, or Tower's "History of the American Whale Fishery"; each of which gives a fairly complete account of special periods of whaling. It is to be hoped that further research may be directed to certain aspects of whaling which have hitherto received inadequate attention. There is material for several theses which might reasonably be proposed for research degrees by postgraduate students at our Universities. Further references to the subject are given under the heading "Bibliography" (p. 315).