DESCUIPTIOX OF WHAl.EBOXE. 417 



sure, the form and position of the roof of a house. 

 The smaller extremity and interior edge of each 

 blade of bone, or the edge annexed to the tongue, are 

 covered with a long fringe of hair, consisting of a 

 similar kind of substance as that constituting the 

 interior of the bone. 



Whalebone is generally brouglit from Green- 

 land in the same state as when taken from the fish, 

 after being divided into iporiahle junks, or pieces, 

 comprising 10 or 12 laminae in eacli ; but occasion- 

 ally it is subdivided into separate blades, and the 

 gum and hair removed when at sea. 



One of the first importations of whalebone into 

 England, was probably in the year 1594^ when a 

 quantity of this substance, being part of the cargo 

 of a wrecked Biscayan ship, was picked up at Cape 

 Breton, by some English ships fitted out for the 

 whale and morse fisheries, after the example of the 

 Icelanders and Biscayans *. 



This substance has been held in such high esti- 

 mation, that, since the establishment of the Spitz- 

 bergen whale-fishery, the British have occasionally 

 purchased it of the Dutch, at the rate of 700 /. per 

 ton f . It is calculated, that at least 100,000 /. per 

 annum were paid to the Dutch for this article, 



VOL. II. Dd 



* Hakluyts Voyages, vol. iii. p. 191' 



f Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. iii. p. .512. 



