The Origin of Whaling. II 
on every whale taken and brought into the French 
port, Béariz. By 1338 this revenue was important 
enough to be the subject of a petition by the English 
admiral stationed at Bayonne, and it was awarded to 
him in consideration of his naval services. By a royal 
act in 1315 Edward II had reserved for himself the 
rights to all whales cast by chance on the shore, and two 
centuries later Henry IV gave the Church at Rochester 
the tithe of whales taken along the shore of that bishopric.’° 
But these and the other early English references, so few. 
in number, all leave doubt whether the whales referred 
to were pursued and killed in the open sea, or were 
merely those accidentally run on shore. 
Thus, up to the sixteenth century, the Norwegians, 
French, Icelanders and English had in some degree 
turned their attention to the revenue to be derived 
from whales. Any estimation of the importance of the 
whale fishery among these nations during the early 
period is purely conjecture. About all the records show 
is that the taking and utilization of whales was a common 
practice at least among these four European nations, 
and that the industry was apparently conducted on the 
largest scale by the French. Certain it is that the 
Biscayans, both French and Spanish, were the most 
distinguished whalemen during the sixteenth century. 
The Bay of Biscay fishery depended on a kind of 
“fin whales”’ which were in the habit of frequenting the 
bay at certain seasons of the year. When their capture 
developed into a more regular industry, however, the 
whales became shy and less abundant. The whalers, 
desiring a more constant fishery than the brief season 
in the bay, and being good sailors, pursued the whales 
into the open sea. Before the end of the sixteenth 
century, these Biscayans, following in the track of 
Sebastian Cabot, had extended their voyages as far 
® Scoresby, p. 14. 
* Scoresby, p. 15-16. 
