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89 CHAPTER VIII. Australian Fisheries — Sperm whales — Bay whalings — Snappers— Seals — Trowbridge Shoals. Among the present available resources of the Australian colonies are the fisheries. The circumjacent seas of New Holland are peopled by numbers of the cetaceous tribes. The sperm whale, which is supposed to produce its young in the open ocean, inhabits a vast region, ex tending from the fortieth degree of south latitude to the coasts of Japan and China, and from the shores of North and South America to those of Madagascar and the African continent. These seas are traversed in every direction by numerous whaling ships, belonging, with a very few exceptions, to Great Britain, France, and the United States. The South Sea fishery is peculiarly ac cessible to the Australian colonies, whales being often found in considerable numbers within two or three days’ sail of Port Jackson ; and on several occasions they have been killed within sight of the Heads. There are- at present forty-five vessels employed in the sperm fisheries by capitalists of Sydney ; and the amount of capital invested being about 400,000/., the annual produce in sperm, black oil, and whalebone, enables the owners to make very advantageous remittances to England, to the amount of 150,000/. annually.