NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. 151 



a law. For in the following year, under date of June 3, 1662, the General Court of Plymouth 

 Colony ordered that for every whale cast ashore, or cut up at sea and brought on shore, one 

 full hogshead of oil was to be paid at Boston by the towns or persons "as are Interested in the 

 lands where they fall or shall soe cutt vp any fhsh at sea." If the "ffish " were torn or "wasted " 

 so that one fourth of it were gone, then only one half a hogshead of oil was to be paid, and 

 nothing if more than half the creature were lost. Probably it was to determine the proportion 

 of oil due from some such damaged carcass, that, in 1672, "in reference vnto a whale brought 

 on shore to Yarmouth from sea, the Court leaues it to the Treasurer to make abatement of 

 what is due to the countrey therof, by law, as hee shall see cause, when hee treated with those 

 that brought it on shore." ^ 



Freeman- mentions an old Indian deed of January 15, 1679, confirmatory of the early 

 piu'chase of Woods Hole, which stipulates that in consideration of the granting of certain lands 

 the Indian, Job Notantico, is to have "liberty to cut sticks and wood on the commons, the fins 

 and tails of whales cast ashore on the neck" at Falmouth. This indicates not only the fre- 

 quency with which whales were thus cast ashore, but perhaps also the industry of the people 

 in thoroughly trying out the entire carcass, leaving only "fins and tails [ = whalebone] " for 

 Poor Lo. Later, at all events, it is certain that the carcass was usually abandoned after the 

 blubber and whalebone were removed. 



The people of Cape Cod at this time seem to have been carrying on their operations 

 with much vigor. So frequently did dead whales come ashore that regulations were passed 

 to provide at once for their safe disposal so that the country, the town, and other parties in- 

 terested should in due course have their rightful share of the proceeds. So in February, 1680, 

 the town of Yarmouth portioned out its shore into three sections and to each allotted four or 

 fi^■e men to secure such whales as stranded within the several sections, fixing at the same time 

 the remuneration for this public service. The record runs: "Agreed with our neighbours under- 

 written in their several bounds, to look out for and secure the town all such whales as by God's 

 providence shall be cast up in their several bounds, for the sum of £4 a whale, to be paid in 

 blubber or oil, till the town see cause to alter the manner: Paul Sears, Sam Worden, Silas 

 Sears, John Burge, Annanias Wing, from Sawtucket to Sawsuit Harbor mouth. Joseph Howes, 

 Sam Howes, John Hall, Jere. Howes, from Sawsuit to Yarmouth Harbor. John Rider, John 

 Hallet, John Hawes, Capt. Thacher, from Yarmouth Harbor to the Mill Creek; and they are 

 to have £5 for every whale that is cut up betwixt Gray's Beach and the Mill Creek, as afore- 

 said." •'' At Sandwich, in 1681, we find a committee appointed "to make sale of the whales 

 that are lately cast ashore in the harbor; and it was agreed that Joseph Hoi way and those 



' Crapo, W. W. Centennial in New Bedford, 1876, p. 66. 

 = Freeman, F. History of Cape Cod, 186:2, vol. 2, p. 427. 

 ' Swift, F. C. History of Old Yarmouth, Mass., 1884, p. 109. 



