WHALE-FISHERY* S35 



altogether, they exhibit, in some measure, the form 

 and position of the roof of a house. The smaller 

 extremity and interior edge of each blade of bone, 

 or the edge annexed to the tongue, are covered with 

 a long fringe of hair, consisting of a similar kind 

 of substance as that constituting the exterior of the 

 bone. Whalebone is generally brought from Green- 

 land in the same state as when taken from the fish, 

 after being divided into portable junks, or pieces, 

 comprising ten or twelve laminae in each; but occa- 

 sionally it is subdivided into separate blades, and 

 the gum and hair removed when at sea. 



One of the first importations of whalebone into 

 England, was probably in the year 1594, when 

 a quantity of this substance, being part of the 

 cargo of a wrecked Bis cay an ship, was picked up 

 at Cape Breton, by some English ships, fitted out 

 for the whale and morse fisheries, after the example 

 of the Icelanders and Biscay ans.* 



This substance has been held in such high esti- 

 mation, that, since the establishment of the Spitz- 

 bergen whale fishery, the British have occasionally 

 purchased it of the Dutch, at the rate of 700Z. per 

 ton.f It is calculated, that at least 100,000Z. per 

 annum were paid to the Dutch for this article, about 

 the years 1715 to 1721, when the price was 400/.$ 



* Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. p. 194. 



f Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. iii. p. 51?. 



| Elking's View of the Greenland Trade, Sec. p. 65. 



