90 THE LABPvADOE PENINSULA. chap. xxvi. 



At Bradore, near the Straits of Belle Isle, the hump- 

 backed whale, or the river whale of the Americans, has 

 frequently been taken seventy feet in length, and pro- 

 duced 300 barrels of oil and thirty-seven hundredweight 

 of bone.* 



Five different species of whales frequent the Gulf ; they 

 are the black whale, the humpbacked, the sulphur- 

 bottomed, the finner, and white whale. The whales in 

 the Gulf are generally from Gaspe Bay, and employ about 

 200 seamen in ten schooners. The value of the Gaspe 

 whale fishery is now estimated at 7,000/. a year. The 

 white whale. Beluga horealis, is really a beautiful animal. 



The white whale is found from fourteen to twenty-two 

 feet in length. It yields from 100 to 120 gallons of oil, 

 which possesses the valuable property of retaining perfect 

 fluidity at temperatm^es below zero, and is therefore very 

 valuable for hghthouse purposes. Leather has been 

 manufactured from the skin of the white whale (erro- 

 neously called the white porpoise), which commands a 

 sale at eight shilhngs the pound. The white whale is 

 caught in strong fish-pounds, at and near the mouth of 

 the river Quelle, a tributary of the Lower St. Lawrence, at 

 the Isle au Coudres, and at Point de Cariole on the north 

 shore of the river. In the fall of the year they assemble, 

 and migrate in a body to their winter quarters in the 

 gulf or Arctic Sea. They hve from April to October in 

 the brackish water of the Lower St. Lawrence, and others 

 proceed slowly down the estuary, accustoming themselves 

 to the salt water. Mi\ Tetu, who has been very suc- 

 cessful in capturing the white whale, and in bringing its 



* Notes on the Coast of Labrador, 



