no A BOOK Of WHALES 



from Fabyan's Chronicle that in the year 1472 "were 

 taken at Eryth within XII miles of London iiii 

 wonderful fysshes whereof one was called Mors 

 Maryne, the second a Sworde fysshe and the other 

 ii were Whales, which after some exposytors were 

 pronostycacions of warre & trouble." The Mors 

 Maryne of this description, one would think, could 

 hardly be a Walrus ; it was very possibly an Orca, 

 of which three individuals came up the Thames 

 so lately as 1890. The notion of the appearance 

 of these huge whales being a portent of dire trouble 

 is common. In Stowe's London is recorded the 

 stranding in the Thames, at Blackwall, of a " Parma- 

 Ceti whale," the Sperm whale of course. A 

 curious variant in the spelling of this word occurs 

 in Baker's Chronicle, where the stranding of a 



O 



Sperm whale is recorded, and the writer goes on 

 to remark, " The Oyl being boy led out of the head 

 was Parmacitta." 



For the following account of a whale hunt in olden 

 times, and also up the Thames, I am indebted to 

 the Rev. William Hunt. The story comes from 

 the Chronica Major a of Matthew Paris ; the date 

 is 1240 : 



" Balaenae circiter undecim praeter alias beluas 

 marinas in litore maris Angliae contermino mortuae, 

 et quasi in aliquo certamine laesae . . . sunt 

 projectae . . . Unde nautae et seniores maris con- 

 finia habitantes . . . asserebant bellum fuisse in- 

 auditum inter pisces beluas et monstra marina, quae 

 sese adinvicem mordentia et collidentia alterno impetu 



