The North Atlantic, as Seen by the Basques 



The Basques viewed the North Atlantic from an angle that was dif- 

 ferent from that of the early Norse. They were in pursuit of one par- 

 ticular whale and one species of fish rather than engaged in a search for 

 lands to settle or ravish. Thus, their expansion was predicated by the 

 behavior of the animals they sought and, in the case of the whale, by 

 their migratory habits. These happened to entail the passage of the ani- 

 mals from their breeding grounds in the Bay of Biscay through both 

 the English Channel and the Irish Sea, and west of Ireland to the com- 

 paratively narrow passageway from the Atlantic to the Norse Sea be- 

 tween the Shetlands and Iceland. 



Following the whales thither, the Basques fell in with the ancient 

 Norse route to Greenland and the West, and this they followed, seeking 

 codfish rather than whales as the latter turned to the right, or north, in 

 their migration. Thus, the Basques got to the Labrador Basin and, doubt- 

 less on the advice of the Greenlanders, then turned left and went to work 

 on the fabulous Grand Banks off Newfoundland where cod swarm in 

 a profusion found nowhere else. They then returned home as fast as 

 possible, and to do this they employed the prevailing Westerlies, as 

 shown. Meanwhile, their whalers turned right, south of Iceland, follow- 

 ing the black right whales, and thus came at an early date to Jan Mayen 

 Land and thence to Spitsbergen, which they probably knew long before 

 Barents first sighted the archipelago. At the same time the British and 

 Hollanders arrived at the same point by sailing up the Scandinavian 

 coast, primarily in search of a northeast passage to Russia and the East. 

 The British soon gave up the effort, but the Dutch made this the gateway 

 to a sea empire. 



