20 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



" The first whale that we saw at sea was asleep, and as we passed quite close 

 the ship was tunied a little, for feai' that upon awaking it might do us some harm. 

 I saw one among the othei's extraordinarily large, and such that the captain and 

 those who went about there said assuredly they had never seen a larger one. 

 That which enabled one the better to appreciate his bulk and size was that in 

 throwing himself about and bearing up against the sea, he made visible a part 

 of his huge body. I was very much astonished by a Gibar which with its fin 

 or its tail ^for I could not well discern or recognize which it was) struck so terribly 

 hard on the watei', that one could hear it for a long distance, and I was told that 

 it was to surpi-ise and mass together the fish, in order afterwards to swallow 

 them." ' 



He remarks also : 



" All this bay [of Gaspe] was so full of whales that at last they inconvenienced 

 us veiy much, and disturbed our repose by their continual bustle, and the noise of 

 their spoutiugs." ~ 



We have already seen that Baffin in his letter to Wolstenholme relative to his 

 voyage of 1616 mentions the "Grand Bay" whale (or whale of the Strait of Belle 

 Isle) which Eschi'icht believed to be Balijeiia myftticetus. (See p. 10.) 



Champlain's account of Canada, already cited, which was published in 1632, 

 contains this note : 



"Codfish and whales are fished for alono- all the coasts of New France, in 

 almost all seasons." ^ 



NEW ENGLAND COAST. 



None of the explorers of the 16th century make any reference, so far as 

 I am aware, to the occurrence of whalebone whales in New England waters. In 

 Brereton's account of Gosnold's voyage to Massachusetts in 1602, however, we find 

 whales included in the list of "commodities" seen in the country, and the following 

 remark : 



"On the north side of this island [Martha's Vineyard ? March, 1602] we found 

 many huge bones and ribs of whales." ^ 



Wayraouth, who made a voyage to the coast of New England in 1605, remarks 

 of the Indians : 



"One especial thing is their manner of killing the whale, which they call 

 powdawe; and will describe his form ; how he bloweth up the water; and that he 

 is twelve fathoms long ; and that they go in company of their king with a multi- 



' Sagard-Theodat, G., Le Grand Voyage au Pays des Hurons, 1632, pp. 24-27. 

 '" Op. cif., p. 40. 



° Laverdiere, CEuvres de Champlain, 2d ed., 5, 1870, p. 663. 



* Brereton, John, A Brief and True Relation of the Discovery of the North Part of Virginia, 

 Made this Present Year 1602. London, 1602. Mass. Hist. Coll. (3), 8, p. 87. 



