IN NORTHERN MISTS 



that there are other possibilities, since the harpoon was probably 

 known to and used on smaller marine animals by the neolithic 

 people of Europe, and the taking of larger fish with harpoon 

 and line was known in the Mediterranean in antiquity,^ as ap- 

 pears, for instance, from Polybius's description of the catching 

 of swordfish at Scyllaeum (on the Straits of Messina), which is 

 reproduced in Strabo, i. 24: 



"A common look-out man goes at their head, while they collect in many 

 two-oared boats to lie in wait for the fish; two in each boat. One of them 

 rows, the other stands in the bow with a spear, while the look-out man gives 

 warning of the appearance of the fish; for the animal swims with a third of its 

 body above water. As soon as the boat has reached the fish, the spearman 

 pierces it by hand, and immediately draws the spear out of its body again, 

 with the exception of the point; for this is provided with barbs, and is pur- 

 posely attached loosely to the shaft, and has a long line fastened to it. This 

 is paid out after the wounded fish, until it is tired by floundering and attempts 

 at flight; then it is drawn to land, or taken into the boat if it is not very large." 

 No better description of harpoon fishing is to be found in the Middle Ages. 

 The dolphin was to the Greeks Poseidon's beast, and they did not take it; but 

 from Oppian's account we see that the barbarian fishermen on the coast of 

 Thrace had no such scruples, but caught dolphins with harpoons to which a 

 long line was attached [cf. Noel, 1815, p. 42]. 



If the Iberian people of the western Mediterranean practised 

 this kind of fishing, the Basques may also have been acquainted 

 with it. But if they used the harpoon on swordfish and small 

 whales, the further step to using it for the Biscay whale was 

 not insuperable to these hardy seamen, and they may thus have 

 themselves developed their methods of whaling without having 

 learnt from the Normans, even if no evidence is forthcoming 

 of their having been acquainted with whaling so early as the 



1 It is possible that the peoples on the shores of the Indian Ocean (and 

 Red Sea) even in early antiquity caught whales and ate whale's flesh [cf. Noel, 

 1815, p. 23]. Strabo [xv. 725 f.; xvi. 767, 773] tells of the great numbers of 

 whales, 23 fathoms long, that Nearchus is said to have seen in this ocean, and 

 says that the Ichthyophagi (fish-eaters) used whales' bones for beams and 

 rafters in their huts. Strabo thinks [i. 24] that the mention of the monster 

 Scylla (who catches dolphins, seals, etc.) in the " Odyssey " [xii. 95 f.] would 

 point to large marine animals having been taken in ancient times; but all this 

 may be very doubtful. 

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