26 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



whale-fishery here at such great expense, when they could have readily ascertained 

 with one, two, or three sloops in New Netherland, whether it was good fishing or 

 not." (P. 39.)' 



This fisliery appears to have become somewhat more j^rosperous later, or at 

 least to have been supplanted by another which was so, if we may credit Van der 

 Donck, who writes in 1656, of events occurring between 1644 and 1653 as follows: 



[1656. A. VAN DER DONCk's "DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW NETHERLANDS."] 



"Here [Delaware Bay] also is a good whale fishery. Whales are numerous in 

 the winter on the coast, and in the bay, where they frequently ground on the shoals 

 and bars ; but they are not as fat as the Greenland whales. If, however, the fishery 

 was well managed, it would be profitable." " 



And again : 



" Tiain oil can be made at the South bays [Delaware Bay], whei'e whales are 



plenty."'^ 



These statements may, I presume, be interpreted to mean either that a fishery 

 was in operation, or that it could be established. The expression, " here is a good 

 whale fishery," may pei'haps mean only that here is a good fishing ground. As the 

 whales are said to come in winter, they were pi-esumably Right whales. 



According to the late Prof. E. D. Cope, a letter of Wm. Penn, dated 1683, 

 states that eleven whales wei'e taken about the capes at the entrance to Delaware 

 Bay that year."* T have not found the original of this statement, but in Penn's 

 General Description of Pennsylvania, published in 1683, among the resources of 

 the country is included " the whale for oil, of which we have good store ; and two 

 companies of whalers, whose boats are built, will soon begin their work, which hath 

 the appeai-ance of a considerable improvement." ^ 



VIRGINIA TO FLORIDA. 



I find no early references to the occurrence of whales on the Atlantic coast 

 from the Chesapeake Bay to Florida. Mr. H. H. Biimley stated in 1894 that the 

 Right whale fisheiy practised ai'ound Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina, had " been 

 in existence many years," ^ but does not give any details regarding its history. 

 Lawson, in 1709, stated that no whales were killed on the coast of North Carolina 

 at that time. (See the remark of Duhamel, quoted on p. 44.) 



' De Vries, D. p., Voyages from Holland to America, A.D. 1632 to 1644. Trans, by H. C. 

 Murphy. 2 N. Y. Hist. Coll., 3, pt. i. 

 '2 iV. Y. Hist. Coll., I, p. 139. 



' Op. cit., p. 235, in the Dialogue between a Patriot and a New Netherlander. 

 ^ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1865, p. 168. 

 'Penn's Select Works, 4th ed., 3, 1825, p. 226. 

 'Bull, of the N. C. Dept. of Ai^ric, 14, No. 7, 1894, p. 5. 



