THE WHALE. 108 



Jenkinson, in his voyage to Russia, performed in 

 1557) saw a number of whales, some of which, bv 

 estimation, were 60 feet long, and are described as 

 being " very monstrous." Edge, who was one of 

 the Russia Company's chief aud earliest whale 

 fishers, having been ten years to Spitsbergen, prior 

 to the year 16S5, calls the whale u a sea beaste of 

 hughe bigness, about 65 foot long, and 35 foot 

 thick," having whalebone ten or eleven feet long, 

 (a common size at present) and yielding about 100 

 hogsheads of oil; and in a descriptive plate, accom- 

 panying Captain Edge's paper on the fishery, pub- 

 lished by Purchas in 1625, is a sketch of a whale, 

 with this remark subjoined — " a whale is ordinari- 

 ly about 60 foot long." 



Hence, I conceive, we may satisfactorily conclude 

 that whales of as large size are found now, as at 

 any former period, since the Spitsbergen fishery was 

 discovered; and I may also remark, that where any 

 respectable authority affords actual measurement ex- 

 ceeding 70 feet, it will always be found thatthespeci- 

 men referred to, w r as not one of the mysticetus kind, 

 but of B. Physalis or the B. Musculus animals, which 

 considerably exceed in length any of the common 

 whales that I have either heard of, or met with. 



When fully grown, therefore, the length of the 

 whale may be stated as varying from 50 to 65, 

 and rarely, if ever, reaching 70 feet; and its greatest 

 circumference from 30 to 40 feet. It is thickest 

 a little behind the fins, or in the middle between 



