82 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Having briefly reviewed two phases of the whale 

 fishery, each perfectly distinct from the other, and each 

 practically obsolete, it is time to speak of the Fin Whales, 

 which form the object of the new departure. And yet 

 there is really nothing new in the capture of some species 

 of whale in these northern seas, for there is evidence that 

 a thousand years ago such captures were effected by the 

 Norwegians in the waters of Scandinavia. 



The mention of this early fishery, although by what 

 method it was effected we know not, occurs in a sadly mis- 

 understood passage in King Alfred's account of Ohthere's 

 voyage to the White Sea which has given rise to almost 

 endless comments. Quoting from Dr. Joseph Bosworth's 

 translation, the passage runs as follows : " Ohthere told his 

 lord King Alfred . . . that he chiefly went thither [to the 

 shores of the White Sea], in addition to the seeing of 

 the country, on account of the horse-whales [walruses], 

 because they have very good bone in their teeth : of these 

 teeth they brought some to the King ; and their hides are 

 very good for ship-ropes. This whale is much lesser than 

 other whales : it is not longer than seven ells ; but, in his own 

 country, is the best wJiale-Jmnting ; they are eight and forty 

 ells, and the longest fifty ells long ; of these he said that he 

 [was] one of six, who killed sixty in two days." The 

 translation given in Hakluyt (edit. 1885, i. 53) is practically 

 to the same effect. Much ink and much ingenuity have 

 been expended to reconcile this apparently impossible feat 

 with Ohthere's known veracity, but, as Professor Skeat 

 says, 1 " the true answer is extremely simple when you 

 know it." Disregarding the misleading punctuation, and 

 reading the portion printed in italics parenthetically, " any 

 one acquainted with the colloquial character of Anglo- 

 Saxon narration " will at once see that it is the Horse 

 Whales (Walruses) of which he with five others killed sixty 

 in two days. But the point I wish to emphasise is that 

 although Ohthere states the whales found on the Norwegian 

 coast, and which afforded " the best whale-hunting," were 

 from 96 to IOO feet long (which would seem to indicate 

 that they were Finners of the largest kind), I have not- 

 1 " Notes and Queries," 7 S. vi. 44 (1888). 



