ZOOLOGY. 19 
place, (John Perinchief,) found one there dead, driven upon 
an island, and though I think ignorant in the business, yet 
got a great quantity of spermaceti out of it. It seems they 
have not much oyl, as ours ; bw this oyl, I hear, is at first 
all over their bodies, like spermaceti; but they clarify 
it I think by the fire. When I speak with him (whom I 
could not meet with at present, and now the ship is ready to 
sail), I shall endeavour to be further informed; but at 
present, with the tender of my humble service to the 
Royal Society, and commending your noble designe to the 
blessinge of the Almighty, I take my leave,” &c. 
Another communication to the Royal Society, from a Mr. 
Richard Stafford, and dated from Bermuda, July 16, 1688, 
has the following :—“ We have hereabouts very many sorts 
of fishes. There is amongst them great store of whales, 
which in March, April, and May, use our coast. I have 
myself killed many of them. Their females have abun- 
dance of milk, which their young ones suck out of the 
teats, that grow by their navel. They have no teeth, but 
feed on moss growing on the rocks at the bottom during 
these three months, and at no other season of the year. 
When that is consumed and gone, the whales go away also. 
These we kill for their oil. But here have been spermaceti 
whales driven upon the shore, which sperma (as they call 
it), lies all over the body of those whales. These have 
divers teeth, which may be about as big as a man’s wrist, 
and I hope by the next opportunity to send you one of 
them. I have been at the Bahama Islands, and there have 
been found of this same sort of whales dead on the shore, 
with sperma all over their bodies. Myself, with about 
twenty more, have agreed to try whether we can master 
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