THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 11 
fines (or rather all the rough of her mouth), of which with much labour we got 
one hundred and sixtie the same evening we found her; and if that foule wether 
and a storme the next day had not followed, we had no doubt but to haue had all, 
or the most part of them: but the winde and sea rising, shee broke from vs, and 
we were forced to leave her. Neither are they onely to be looked for in Whale 
Sound, but also in Smith’s Sound, Wolstenholme’s Sound, and others, etca.,” 
(Pp. 146-147.) 
“As concerning what the shore will yeeld, as beach-finnes, morse-teeth, and 
such like, I can say little, because we came not on shore in any of the places where 
hope was of findinge them. 
“But here som may object why we sought that coast no better? To this I 
answere, that while we were thereabout, the wether was so exceeding foule, we 
could not. . . . When we had coasted the land so farre to the southward, that 
hope of passage was none, then the yeere was too farre spent [to seek a harbor}, 
and many of our men very weake, and withall we hauing some beliefe that ships 
the next yeere would be sent for the killing of whales, which might doe better 
than we.” (Pp. 147-148.) 
“And seeing I have briefly set doune what hope there is of making a profit- 
able voyage, it is not vnfit your worship should know what let or hindrance might 
be to the same. ‘The chiefest and greatest cause is, that som yeere it may happen by 
reason of the ice lying betweene 72 and a halfe and 76 degrees, no minutes, that the 
ships cannot com into those places till toward the middest of July, so that want of 
time to stay in the countrey may be some let: yet they may well tarry till the last 
of August, in which space much businesse may be done, and good store of oile 
made. Neuerthelesse, if store of whales come in (as no feare to the contrarie) what 
cannot be made in oyle, may be brought home in blubber, and the finnes will arise 
to good profit. Another hinderance will be, because the bottome of the sounds 
will not be so soone cleere as would bee wished ; by meanes whereof, now and then 
a whale may be lost. (The same case sometimes chanceth in Greeneland [i. e. 
Spitzbergen].) Yet, I am perswaded those sounds before named [ Whale, Smith, and 
Wolstenholme] will all be cleere before the twentieth of July: for we, this yeere, 
were in Whale Sound the fourth day, amongst many whales, and might have 
strooke them without let of ice.”? 
This letter, which is undated, relates to the second voyage, 1616. 
The use of the name “Grand Bay whale” in this letter for the Greenland 
Right whale attracted the attention of Eschricht and Reinhardt, and they enter 
into an elaborate discussion as to its significance in relation to the primitive distri- 
bution of the species in their exhaustive memoir.’ 
Thomas Edge was in Spitzbergen at the same time as Baffin, and in the narra- 
tive of his “ten several voyages” thither he takes pains to insert a description of 
the various species of whales found in those waters. The description begins thus: 
[1610-1622. VOYAGES OF THOMAS EDGE TO SPITZBERGEN. | 
“There are eight sorts of whales: The first is called the Grand- Bay, from a 
place in New-found-land, where they were first killed; he is black, with a smooth 
"Voyages towards the Northwest. Ed. by Thos. Rundall. Hakluyt Soc., 1849, pp. 146- 
149. From Purchas. 
“Om Nordhvalen. Vidensk. Selsk. Skr., 5 Raekke, naturvid. og math. Afd., Bd. 5, p. 459. 
