10& THE WHALE. 



was not, I understand, so much as 70 feet in length; 

 and the longest actual measurement that I have met 

 with, or heard of, is given by Sir Charles Giesecke, 

 who informs us, that in the Spring of 1813, a whale 

 was killed at Grodharn, of the length of 67 feet; these 

 however are very uncommon instances. I therefore 

 conceive that 60 feet may be considered as the size 

 of the largest animals of this species, and 65 feet in 

 length as a magnitude which very rarely occurs. 



Yet I believe that whales now occur of as large 

 dimensions as at any former period, since the com- 

 mencement of the whale fishery. This point I en- 

 deavoured to prove, from various historical records, 

 in a paper, read before the Wernerian Society, on 

 the 19th day of December, 1818, and since inserted 

 in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, No. 1. 

 p. 83. 



In this paper, I brought forward the authorities 

 of Zorgdrager, the writer of an account of the whale 

 fishery, and one of the early superintendents of the 

 Dutch northern fisheries, together with opinions or 

 remarks of Captain Anderson, Gray, Heley, and 

 others, who were among the earliest of the English 

 whalers, which satisfactorily prove, that the average 

 and largest produce of a whale in oil, was not 

 greater near two hundred years ago, than it is at 

 the present time; and to these are added the testi- 

 monies of Captain Jenkinson and Edge, as to the 

 length of the whale, which likewise corresponds 

 pretty nearly with the measurements I have my- 

 self made. 



