ZOOLOGY. — MYSTICETUS. 475 



The whale, from its vast bulk and variety of pro- 

 ducts, is of great importance in commerce, as well 

 as in the domestic economy of savage nations ; and 

 its oil and whalebone are of extensive application in 

 the arts and manufactures. A description of its 

 most valuable products, and of the uses to which 

 they are applied, being included in the account of 

 the whale-fishery, in the second volume of this work, 

 it will only be necessary, in this place, to mention 

 the purposes to which parts and products, not now 

 objects of commerce, are or might be applied. 



Though to the refined palate of a modern Euro- 

 pean, the flesh of a whale, as an article of food, 

 would be received with abhorrence, yet we find that 

 it is considered, by some of the inhabitants of the 

 northern shores of Europe, Asia, and America, as 

 well as those on the coasts of Hudson's Bay and 

 Davis' Strait, as a choice and staple article of subsis- 

 tence. The Esquimaux eat the flesh and fat of the 

 whale, and drink the oil with greediness. Indeed, 

 some tribes who are not familiarised with spirituous 

 liquors, carry along with them in their canoes, in 

 their fishing excursions, bladders filled with oil, 

 which they use in the same way, and with a similar 

 relish, that a British sailor does a dram*\ They also 

 eat the skin of the whale raw, both adults and chil- 

 dren ; for it is not uncommon, when the females 

 visit the whale-ships, for them to help themselves 



• Ellis's Voyage to Hudson's Bay, p. 233. 



