6 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



that are implied in the preceding characters of the order 

 or the genus, they are more accurate and more descrip- 

 tive than those of any other author with whom I am 

 acquainted. 



These are the principal writers on zoology who have 

 treated on cetacea ; but there are several works, on the 

 productions of particular countries, which contain useful 

 or curious information on the same subject. Of these I 

 shall notice a few of the most respectable, and thus con- 

 clude my historical sketch of cetological writers. Among 

 the earliest of them is the " History of Iceland," by 

 John Anderson, a German naturalist of considerable re- 

 putation : he has described several species that were but 

 little known before his time, particularly the bala-na 

 nord-caper, or Iceland whale; the balcena gibbosus, or 

 knobbe-Jish, or scrag whale; and the balce noptera ju- 

 bartes, or Jupiter fish (the pike-headed whale) ; and he 

 has interspersed some amusing particulars respecting the 

 manners of the Icelanders, and the methods employed 

 by them for taking the cetacea, though his accounts 

 cannot always be received with implicit reliance. 



Frederick Marten, another German, published an 

 " Account of Spitzbergen and the neighbouring Arctic 

 Regions," which is frequently referred to by Pennant 

 and other zoological writers, particularly as containing 

 the best account of the B. gibbar, or fin-fish, and the 

 butskoff, or beaked whale. 



About the middle of the eighteenth century, John 

 Egede, a Danish missionary, who had lived many years 

 in (Eastern) Greenland, successfully labouring for the 

 conversion of the natives, having acquired a thorough 

 acquaintance with the productions of the natives, and 

 their manners, and the country, published his " Descrip- 

 tion of Greenland," which was speedily translated into 

 English, and published in octavo, with tolerable plates. 



