20 WHALING 



findeth much water skippeth here and there, as touched with 

 grief, and in the end draweth to land, where forthwith, for the 

 huge enormity of her body, she remaineth on the shore, not 

 being able to move or stir herself any more. And then a 

 great number of Indians do come to find out the conqueror for 

 to reap the fruit of his conquest, and for that purpose they 

 make an end of killing of her, cutting her and making morsels 

 of her flesh (which is bad enough) which they dry and stamp 

 to make powder of it, which they use for meat, that serveth them 

 a long time. 



"As for the hippopotames, or morses, we have said in the 

 voyages of James Quartier that there be great numbers of them 

 in the gulf of Canada, and especially in the isle of Brion, and in 

 the seven isles, which is the river of Chischedec. It is a creature 

 which is more like to a cow than to a horse; but we have named 

 it Hippotame, that is to say, the horse of the river, because 

 Pliny doth so call them that be in the river Nile, which not- 

 withstanding do not altogether resemble the horse, but doth 

 participate also of an ox or cow. He is of hair, like to the seal, 

 that is to say, dapple gray, and somewhat towards the red, 

 the skin very hard, a small head like to a Barhary cow, having 

 two ranks of teeth on each side between which there are two 

 of them of each part hanging from the upper jaw downward, of 

 the form of a young elephant's tooth, wherewith this creature 

 helpeth herself to climb on the rocks. Because of those teeth, 

 our mariners do call it la heste a la grand dent, the beast with the 

 great teeth. His ears be short and his tail also, he loweth as an 

 ox, and hath wings or fins at his feet, and the female calleth her 

 young ones on the land. And because he is a fish of the whale- 

 kind and very fat, our Basques and other m.ariners do make 

 oyl thereof, as they do with the whale, and they do surprise 

 him on the land." 



