ZOOLOGY. — BAL^iSlA MYSTICETUS, 453 



others, who were among the earliest of the English 

 whalers, which satisfactorily prove, that the average 

 and largest produce of a whale in oil, was not greater, 

 near two hundred years ago, than it is at the pre- 

 sent time ; and to these are added, the testimonies 

 of Captains Jenkinson and Edge, as to the length of 

 the whale, which likewise corresponds, pretty near- 

 ly, with the measurements I have myself made. 



Jenkinson, in his voyage to Russia, performed in 

 1557, saw a number of whales, some of which, by 

 estimation, were 60 feet long, and are described as 

 being " very monstrous." Edge, who was one of 

 the Russia Company's chief and earliest whalefishers, 

 having been ten years to Spitzbergen, prior to the 

 year 1625, calls the whale " a sea beaste of huge 

 bigness, about 65 foot long and 35 foot thick," ha- 

 ving whalebone 10 or 11 feet long, (a common size 

 at present,) and yielding about 100 hogsheads of 

 oil ; and, in a descriptive plate accompanying Cap- 

 tain Edge's paper on the fishery, published by 

 PuRCHAS in 1625, is a sketch of a whale, with 

 this remark subjoined, — " A whale is ordinarily 

 about 60 foot long." 



Hence I conceive we may satisfactorily conclude, 

 that whales of as large size are found now, as at any 

 former period since the Spitzbergen fishery was dis- 

 covered ; and I may also remark, that where any re- 

 spectable authority affords actual measurements ex- 

 ceeding 70 feet, it will always be found that the spe- 



