10 WHALE-FISHERY. 



possibly, be that species of Delphinus, so frequent- 

 ly driven on shore in great numbers at Orkney, 

 Shetland, and Iceland, in the present age ; where, 

 in this way, a few small boats have been known to 

 capture even a larger number than Oh there speaks of, 

 in one day. If so, though it does not contradict or 

 explain away the fact, of larger whales having been 

 likewise hunted and captured, it removes the objec- 

 tion as to the improbability of the exploit recorded, 

 and enables us to adhere with greater confidence to 

 our authority of the great antiquity of the whale- 

 fishery by the Norv/egians. 



In various ancient authors, we have accounts of 

 whales as an object of pursuit ; and by some nations 

 held in high estimation as an article of food. Pas- 

 sing over the notices of these animals by the classic 

 authors as objects of peculiar di'cad, or as prognostics 

 of peculiar events, I proceed to the consideration of 

 those which mention the whale in the way of fish- 

 ery or capture, as my more immediate object *. 



* For the following researches relative to the ancient history 

 of the Wliale- fishery ;, up to the middle of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, I am chiefly indebted to a " Memoire sur I'Antiquite de 

 " la Peche de la Baleine par les Nations Europeennes," by 

 S. B. J. Noel, Paris, 1795, 12mo. The greater part of the 

 references I have compared with the originals ; and where 

 the spirit of the language has been altered by the translation?, 

 .1 have endeavoured to correct it. 



