THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTEKN NOKIII ATLANTIC. 35 



Linuieus's Systema Natur*, may be couvenieiitly divided into three classes. lu the 

 first class belong the general natural histoi'ies, commonly covering the whole field 

 of geography, zoology, botany, anthropology, and often other branches of science 

 as well. These works are descriptive rather than systematic, and frequently contain 

 reflections on and discussions of philological, theological, and political sul)jects. 



The second class comprises works relating more strictly to animals, plants, and 

 minerals, but in which little or no attempt is made to classify the various natural 

 objects described. Finally, we have the formal natural histories, the precursoi-s of 

 the systematic works of the present time. As zoologies of this third class do not 

 make their appearance before the beginning of the eighteenth century, we shall look 

 in vain for any systematic treatment of the subject under consideration iu advance 

 of that time. 



In the two centuries, 1553-1758, the whale fishery received the largest share 

 of attention. Discussions of the identity of the unicorn, involving descriptions 

 of the Narwhal, occupy the next place, while little less extensive were the in- 

 quiries regai'ding the origin of ambergris and the nature of the whale which 

 swallowed Jonah. The industrial treatises cover neaily the whole period, but 

 those on the unicorn seem to have had their origin about the middle of the seven- 

 teenth ceutuiy, and those on ambergris and on Jonah's whale in the later decades 

 of that century. 



None of the early naturalists, such as Rondelet (1554), Gesner (1551), or 

 Belon (1551), made any reference to the observations of the American explorers 

 or to American cetaceans in any wise. American cetology opens in 1590 with 

 Acosta's fable of the Florida Indians, who, as he learned from "some expert men," 

 captured whales by driving plugs into their blowholes.' This fable was repeated 

 by De Bry in 1602, who published a plate showing the Indians engaged in this 

 marvellous whale fisheiy.' Lescarbot quotes from Acosta in 1609^ and Nierem- 

 berg also tells the story in 1635, but seems inclined to discredit it.'' Du Tetre 

 also repeats it in 1667. 



Rochefort's Natural History of the Antilles, published in 1658, contains the 

 next reference to baleen whales in North American waters. A translation of his 

 lemarks has ali-eady been given on p. 30. Though his description is far from 

 satisfactory, it seems to have reference to some species of Finback whale. This is 

 the more probable as Du Tetre iu his History of the Antilles, published in 1667, 

 has a fullei- description under the same heading, as -we have already seen in the 

 preceding chapter, pp. 30, 31. 



Eighteenth Century. 



In 1703, La Hon tan, in his New Voyages to North America, enumerates 

 (1) " Balenofs, or little whales"; (2) "a fish almost as big as a whale, called 



' Acosta, J., Hist. nat. y moral de las Indias, Seville, 1590, pp. 158-162. 



' DeBry, T., Idaea vera et genuina, Praecipuarum Historiariim omnium, ut et variorum Rituum, 

 Ceremoniarum (etc.) gentis Indica;, Frankfort, 1602, pi. i. 

 ' Nova Francia. English ed., 1609, p. 269. 

 * NiEREMBERG, J. E., Historia naturas, Antwerp, 1635, p. 261. 



