IO A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
came, for the French were undoubtedly acquainted 
with the business at a very early date. Thus, in a book 
entitled ‘‘Translation et des Miracles de Saint Vaast,”’ 
published about 875, mention is made of whale fishing 
on the French coast; and in another book ‘‘Vie de Saint 
Arnould Evéque de Soissons,’”’ printed in the eleventh 
century, there is an account of a miracle performed by 
the saint in helping to capture an escaping whale, in 
which particular mention is made of the fishery with 
the harpoon.‘ About the same time William the Con- 
queror gave the Convent of the Holy Trinity of Caen 
a tithe of the whales captured at or brought to Dive.' 
This fact, with other similar entries in the records, 
indicate that a more or less regular whale fishery was 
then carried on near the coasts of Normandy and 
Flanders. A French manuscript of the thirteenth century 
makes mention of whale’s flesh being used for food. 
The great D’Aussy, in his work “La vie privée des 
Francais,’’ makes it appear that the flesh, and particu- 
larly the tongue, was sold in the public markets of 
Bayonne, Cibourre and Béariz, and that it was regarded 
as a delicacy.* It is supposed that the whales were 
taken along the coast and that the flesh was. therefore 
sold ina fresh state. But whether whaling was a regular 
industry is uncertain. 
A Danish work, supposed to have been written 
about the middle of the twelfth century, states that the 
Icelanders were in the habit of pursuing whales and 
that they lived on the flesh of some one of the species.’ 
It is not clear whether the English made any very 
early attempts at actual whaling, the first references 
to whales appearing in the fourteenth century. At that 
time Edward III of England, had a revenue of £6 sterling 
‘Scoresby, p. 12. 
* Scoresby, p. 13. 
* Scoresby, p. 14. 
T Scoresby, p. 11 
