NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. 145 



The occurrence of remains of modern species of large Cetacea in our Pleistocene clays, 

 especially those of Vermont and southern Maine, is to be looked for, in association with those 

 of the White Whale, the Walrus, and sundry mollusks already known from those formations. 



New England Right Whale Fishery. 



The Right Whale fishery on the New England coast, at one time a regular and lucrative 

 pursuit, has long since ceased to exist except in the most casual way. From the time of the 

 settlement of Plymouth for a hundred years, it employed many small boats and a large pro- 

 portion of the settlers at certain times of the year when the whales were to be found along the 

 shores. The accounts of this important industry that have come down to us are barely sufficient 

 to reconstruct an outline of it. As the whales became less frequent in the nearer waters, larger 

 craft were fitted out for taking them at sea. At first these vessels made cruises of only a few 

 days at most, but gradually they fared farther and farther from the home ports in pursuit of 

 both Right and Sperm Whales, and even to the arctic ice for the Bowhead. Thus began to 

 develop the whaling industry of Nantucket and New Bedford, the importance of which it is 

 difficult to estimate, not alone on account of the fortunes made by the ship owners, but because 

 of the training in seamanship that helped to establish the future nation's naval prestige. The 

 rise and development of American whaling has been often traced, and need not here concern 

 us. 



The American Indians probably attacked the whale but seldom. An occasional dead one 

 cast on shore, was nevertheless much appreciated by their hardy stomachs. Thus good Roger 

 Williams of Rhode Island, in his Key into the Language of America, printed in 1643, defines 

 the word "Potop; the whale," and adds: "In some places whales are often cast up. I have 

 seen some of them, but not above sixtie foot long. The natives cut them in several parcels, 

 and give and send them far and near, for an acceptable present or dish" (Coll. Mass. Hist. 

 Soc, 1810, ser. 1, vol. 3, p. 224). Bartholomew Gosnold in the last of May, 1602, found 

 at the north end of Cuttyhunk Island, Mass., "many huge bones and ribbes of whales," the 

 remains, perhaps, of such as had drifted ashore or been killed by the aborigines. The Indian 

 shell heaps on the Maine coast have also yielded a few portions of whale bones, to indicate 

 that the natives occasionally feasted on whale meat. 



In Rosier's Relation of Waymouth's Voyage to the Coast of Maine, 1605 (republished 

 by the Gorges Society, 1887, p. 158) is a quaintly worded account of aboriginal whaling by the 

 New England Indians: " One especiall thing is their manner of killing the Whale, which they 

 call Powdawe [in the Abenaki tongue, the editor explains, this signifies 'he blows' — the 

 Abenaki for whale is ' Pudeb6 '] and will describe his forme ; how he bloweth vp the water and 

 that he is 12 fathoms long; and that they [the Indians] go in company of their King with a 

 multitude of their boats, and strike him with a bone made in fashion of a harping iron fastened 



