THE WHALEBONE WHALES OK THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 43 



Tlie whalebone vs^liales are brought together under the genus JJuldna as 

 f(.)llows : liahina mij^ticetim [Bowhead], ]i. physidas [Common Finback], B. hoopn 

 [Humpback], B. rostmta [Little Piked whale], and B. musculus. This last was 

 not known to Faliricius iiiuiself, and he remarks regarding it : "A whale known 

 under a Gi'eenlaudic name allied to the preceding [Z). boopH], and rarely seen, which 

 indeed its name indicates. I am perplexed regarding the synonyms of it and the 

 wondei-fid confusion of them among authors; aud being denied by fate to see one 

 of them, I am able to determine nothing with certainty." 



In 1818 Fabiicius gave a further description of the Greenland Humpback, 

 under the name of " Stub-Hval." ' He treats of its name, external chai-acteis and 

 coloration, distribution and migrations, food, uses, enemies aud parasites, and syn- 

 onymy. The figure which accompanies the article, though interesting, is grossly 

 inaccurate in many particulars. It is quite as good, however, as many others of its 

 time. That it was not made use of by compilers subsequently is somewhat 

 singular. 



An important list of American cetaceans was published in 17S2 in a work 

 whose title — Letters fiom an American Farmer — one would hai'dly expect to find 

 in a bibliography of cetology." The author, Hector St. John de Ci-^vecoeur, seems 

 to have had more or less knowledge of the whaling industiy from practical experi- 

 ence, aud states that he was "well acquainted" with one kind of whale. His list 

 purports to com[)rise the species known to the people of Nantucket, aud reflects 

 an accuracy of knowledge which is remarkable for its time. 



" The river St. Laurence whale [he remarks] which is the only one I am 

 well acquainted with, is seventy-five feet long, sixteen deep, twelve in the length 

 of its bone (which commonly weighs 3000 lb.), twenty in the breadth of their tails, 

 and produces 180 barrels of oik"^ 



This is, of course, the Bowhead, and its mention in this manner seems to sup- 

 port the assertion made by Thomas Edge more than a century before (1625), that 

 the Bowhead at a still earlier date was taken in the " Grand Bay of Newfoundland " 

 [Strait of Belle Isle]. See page 11. 



De Crevecoeur proceeds : "The following are the names and principal character- 

 istics of the various species of whales known to these foeople [of Nantucket and 

 Martha's Vineyard] : 



"The River St. Laurence whale, just described. 

 "The disko, or Greenland ditto. 



"The right whale, or seven feet bone, common on the coasts of this country, 

 about sixty feet long. 



' Fabricius, O,, Zoologiske Bidrag. 2det Bidrag. Om Stub-Hvalen, Balmna Boops. K. 

 Danske Videns. Schk. Skrivter, 6, i8i8, pp. 63-83, i pi. (unnumhered), fig. i. 



' Letters from an American P'armer describing the British Colonies in North America, London, 

 1782, pp. 167-169. Allen (Bibliog.,p. 472), states that "In the French edition of 1767 [lege 1787], 

 the letter about the whale-fishery is dated ' Nantucket, 17 Octobre, r772.' " 



^ Op. cit., p. 167. 



