44 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



" The spermaceti whale, found all over the \\'orl(], and of all sizes ; the longest 

 ai'e sixty feet, aud yield about 100 barrels of oil. 



"The hump-backs, on the coast of Newfoundland, from forty to seventy feet 

 in length. 



"The finn-back, an American whale, never killed, as being too swift. 



"The sulphur-bottom, river St. Laurence, ninety feet long; they are but 

 seldom killed, as being extremely swift. 



"The grampus, thirty feet long, never killed on the same account. 



"The killer or thrasher, about thirty feet; they often kill the other whales, 

 with which they are at perpetual wai\ 



" The black fish whale, twenty feet, yields from eight to ten barrels. 



"The piirpoise, weighing about IGO pounds." 



In this same year, 1782, was published Duhamel's great Traite General des 

 Peches. He also alludes to the occurrence of Bowheads in the temperate waters 

 of Canada. 



"I know that some small whales [Nordcapers] are taken in Iceland, and that 

 some lai'ge ones [Bowheads] ai-e found sometimes accidentally in the more temper- 

 ate Provinces, es[)ecially in Canada, where the large whales [Bowheads] are for the 

 most pai't wounded by harpoons ; some even ai'e dead, which leads one to believe 

 that they are whales which, having been chased and wounded in the northei'n 

 parts, have left their home to I'etire into other quarters.'" 



What led Duhamel to make this explanation is not evident, but if the Bow- 

 head was really fished for in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it seems unlikely that 

 wounded and dead whales would be the object of pursuit. Refen-ing to the causes 

 which induced the English to withdi'aw from the Greenland fishery, Duhamel 

 remarks : 



"Others pi'etend that the Dutch having succeeded in carrying on the fisher}' 

 [at Greenland] with more economy than the English, the latter have found it more 

 convenient and advantageous to cai'iy on the fishery on the coasts of New England, 

 New York, and Carolina, where they maintain many vessels, which carry the pro- 

 duct of their fishery to England. The whales that are taken in these places are 

 smaller than those found in the ice of the north; nevertheless, in pi'oportion to 

 their size, they yield oil quite abundantly."* 



On page 28 he gives Acosta's story of the Floiida Indians, without referi'iug to 

 the former, but remai'ks : "The ti'uth of this which we have said has been attested 

 by many ocular witnesses, among othei's, by many officers, \vho. have been ready to 

 establish these facts." This is the first time since 1590, I believe, that any one 

 has been willing to vouch for the truth of Acosta's story. 



A writer of this period who labored earnestly, and with some measure of suc- 

 cess, to abate the confusion existing in cetology, was the Abbe Bonnaterre, whose 

 Tableau Encyclopedique was published as a supplement to the Encyclopaedia 



' Duhamel, Traite General des Peches, 4, p. 10. 

 ' Op. cit., 4, p. 28. 



