4 WHAI.E-FISHERY. 



tion among the nets of the fishermen of Biscay and 

 Gascony. Concern for the preservation of their 

 nets, which probably constituted their principal pro- 

 perty, would naturally suggest the necessity of dri- 

 ving these intruding monsters from their coasts. 

 With this view, the use of fire-arms, or, supposing 

 the capture of these animals by the Basques and Bis- 

 cayans to have been effected prior to the invention of 

 gunpowder (a. d. 1330), which was probably the 

 case, the use of arrows and spears would naturally 

 be resorted to. On shooting at the whales, either by 

 means of the bow or the musket, they would doubt- 

 less be surprised to find, that, instead of their be- 

 ing the ferocious, formidable, and dangerous ani- 

 mals they had conceived, they were timid and in- 

 offensive. This observation would have a ten- 

 dency to supply them with such additional confi- 

 dence and courage, that the most adventurous, from 

 motives of emulation, the prospect of profit, or even 

 from a principle of fool-hardiness, might be induced 

 to approach some individual of the species, and even 

 dart their spears into its body. Perceiving that it 

 evinced no intention of resistance, but that, on 

 the contrary, it immediately fled with precipitation 

 to the bottom of the sea, and that, on its return to 

 the surface, it was quite exhausted, and apparently 

 in a dying state ; they might conceive the possibili- 

 ty of entangling some of tlie species, by means of a 

 cord attached to a barbed arrow or spear. If, to the 



