A. E. Verritt — The Bermuda Islands. 523 



Large sharks have occasionally been taken, outside the reefs, for 

 their liver oil, from early times down to the present year. The oil 

 was used for lamp-oil, in early times, but is now highly prized as a 

 lubricant. The shark most commonly taken for their oil is called by 

 the fisherman the "nurse shark," but it is probably not the true 

 northern nurse-shark.* It may be the " Cat-shark " or " Gata," of 

 which small specimens are not uncommon. 



d. — Silk, Castor Oil, Olive Oil,-etc. 



In the early history of the Bermudas, many attempts were made 

 to cultivate crops that did not prove successful, for various reasons, 

 but perhaps oftener for the want of a market than for any other 

 cause. Attempts were made very early to raise silk worms, and 

 large numbers of Mulberry trees were planted for this use, about 

 1630, but the enterprise came to nothing. Governor Reid, about 

 1839, again tried to introduce silk raising, but without success. 

 Apparently the native laborers are not equal to the constant and 

 faithful care required for this industry. Some silk worms have been 

 raised by individuals in recent years. 



About 1630, when the price of tobacco had become so low as to be 

 unprofitable, the Company ordered the planting of the Castor-oil 

 plant for its oil, and sent out seed for the purpose. They were 

 planted in 1631-34 in large quantities. 



That the cultivation of the castor-oil plant was very successful is 

 proved by the following extract fi*om a letter of Governor Roger 

 Wood, to the Company, in 1634 : — 



" Now for your oyle wee have planted and gathered so much seed 

 as it may be lykened to Josephs provision for corne in Egypt, for wee 

 have no place to lay it in, and now we have it wee know not what to 

 doe with it, and before I will put a finger to a presse to make this 

 oyle for 12d the gallon I protest I will plucke up all my trees and 

 burne them. I like well of yor price proposed to sell a bushell as 

 they be gathered from the Trees, the long stalkes takes off the heape 

 of 12d the bushell, and this is so little that men can not live of lessc; 

 but lett those oyle marchants make that good and I will deliver them 

 50,000 bushellsof seed from the Inhabitants of these Islands yearely, 



* During the time when whales were often taken, large sharks would follow 

 the dead whales that were towed ashore, being attracted by the blood, and some- 

 times they damaged the whales considerably. As an offset, the fishermen used 

 to take the denuded carcasses of the whales outside the reefs and use them for 

 baiting the sharks, spearing those that came around the bait. 



