660 ANNUAL REGISTER, 16^18. 



made of the bowels and entrails 

 of seals. The mast is placed 

 foremost on the prow, and as the 

 sail is broad at the upper end, 

 where it is fastened to the yard, 

 and narrow at the lower end, so 

 they neither want braces nor bow- 

 lines and sheet ropes, and with 

 these sails they sail well enough 

 with the wind, not otherwise. 

 These boats, as they are flat- 

 bottomed, can soon be overset. 



The men meddle with no work 

 at home but what concerns their 

 tools for hunting and fishing tack- 

 lings, viz. their boats, bows, ar- 

 rows, and the like. All other 

 work, even of building and re- 

 pairing their houses, belongs to 

 the women. As dexterous and 

 skilful as the men are at their 

 work, the women are not be- 

 hindhand with them, but ac- 

 cording to their way and man- 

 ner deserve to be praised and 

 admired. 



The Greenland Sea abounds in 

 different sorts of animals, fowls, 

 and fishes, of which the whale 

 bears the sway, and is of divers 

 kinds, shapes, and sizes. Some 

 are called the finned whales, from 

 the fins they have upon their 

 back near the tail ; but these are 

 rot much valued, yielding but 

 little fat or blubber, and that of 

 the meaner sort ; they consist of 

 nothing but lean flesh, sinews, 

 and bones. They are of a long, 

 round, and slender shape, very 

 dangerous to meddle with, for 

 they rage and lay about them 

 most furiously with their tail, so 

 that nobody cares to come at 

 them, or catch them. The Green- 

 landers make much of them, on 

 account of their flesh, which, with 

 them, passes for dainty cheer. 

 The Qther sort of whales are 



reckoned the best for their fat, 

 and fins or whalebones. These 

 differ from the first sort, in that 

 they have no fin on the back to- 

 wards the tail, but two lesser ones 

 near the eyes, and are covered 

 ■with a thick black skin, marbled 

 with white strokes. With these 

 side fins they swim with an incre- 

 dible swiftness. The tail is com- 

 monly three or four fathoms 

 broad. The head makes up one- 

 third of the whole fish. The jaws 

 are covered, both above and be- 

 neath, with a kind of short hair 

 At the bottom of the jaws are 

 placed the so called baiders, or 

 whalebones, which serve him in- 

 stead of teeth, of which he has 

 none. They are of different co- 

 lours, some brown, some black, 

 and others yellow with white 

 streaks. Within the mouth, the 

 barders or whalebones are covered 

 with hair like horse-hair, chiefly 

 those that inclose the tongue. 

 Some of them are bent like a 

 scymitar, or sabre. The smallest 

 are ranged the foremost in the 

 mouth, and the hindermost near i 

 the throat ; the broadest and \ 

 largest are in the middle, some of 

 them two fathoms long, by which 

 we may judge of the vast bigness 

 of this animal. On each side 

 there are commonly two hundred 

 andfifty,in all five hundred pieces. 

 They are set in a broad row, as 

 in a sheaf, one close to the other, 

 bent like a cresent or half moon, 

 broadest at the root, which is of a 

 tough and grisly matter, of a 

 whitish colour, fastened to the 

 upper part of the jaws, near the 

 throat, and they grow smaller 

 towards the end, which is pointed ; 

 they are also covered with hair, 

 that they may not hurt the tongue. 

 The undermost jaw is commoal/ 



white 



