THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. We 
yeare to the great riuer of Canada for the Whale. Commonly the fishing thereof 
is made in the riuer called Lesguemin toward Tadoussac. And for to doe it 
they goe by skowtes to make watch vpon the tops of rockes, to see if they may 
haue the sight of some one: and when they haue discovered any, foorthwith 
they goe with fower shaloupes after it, and hauing cunningly borded her, they 
strike her with a harping iron to the depth of her lard, and to the quicke of the 
flesh. Then this creature feeling herselfe rudely pricked, with a dreadfull boister- 
ousnesse casteth herselfe into the depth of the sea. The men in the meane while 
are in their shirts, which vere out the cord whereunto the harping iron is tied, 
which the whale carrieth away. But at the shaloupe side that hath giuen the blow 
there is a man redy with a hatchet in hand to cut the said cord, least perchance 
some accident should happen that it were mingled, or that the Whales force should 
be too violent: which notwithstanding hauing found the bottome, and being able to 
goe no further, she mounteth vp againe leasurely aboue the water: and then againe 
she is set upon with glaue-staves, or pertuisanes, very sharp, so hotly that the salt. 
water pierceing within her flesh ele looseth her force, and remaineth there. Then 
one tieth her to a cable at whose end is an anker which is cast into the sea, then at 
the end of six or eight daies they goe to fetch her, when time and opportunity per- 
mits it they cut her in peeces, and in great kettles doe seeth the fat which melteth 
it selfe into oile, wherewith they may fill 400 Hogs-heads, sometimes more, and 
sometimes lesse, ‘according to the greatnesse of the ‘beast, and of the tongue com- 
monly they draw fiue, yea six hogs- heads full of traine.” [Then follows quotation 
from Acosta’s account of Indians taking whales in Florida. |! 
When Champlain was returning from Tadoussac on the St. Lawrence River to 
France, 1610, his vessel ran into a whale and he takes the occasion to describe the 
whale fishery in detail, as follows: 
[ 1610. CHAMPLAIN’S DESCRIPTION OF THE WHALE FISHERY IN NEW FRANCE, CHAPTER x11. | 
“Tt has seemed to me not to be inappropriate to give here a short description 
of the whale fishery, as many persons have never seen it and believe that they are 
taken by shooting with guns, while there are lars so unblushing that they affirm 
this to those who know nothing of it. From these false accounts many persons have 
obstinately disputed this with me. 
“Those then who are most skilful at this fishery are the Basques, who in order 
to prosecute it, place their vessels in a safe harbor, near where they judge there are 
numbers of whales, and equip many boats filled with good men and lines, which are 
small ropes made of the best hemp obtainable, having a length of at least 150 
fathoms; and have a great many lances of the length of a half-pike, which have the 
iron six inches broad,—of others a foot and a half or two feet long, very sharp. 
They have in each boat a harpooner, who is a man of the most agile and skilful 
among them, and draws the most pay after the masters, inasmuch as it is the most 
hazardous position. The boat above mentioned being outside the harbor, they look 
in all directions in order that they may if possible see and discover a whale feeding 
off one shore or the other ; and not seeing any, they return to land and ascend the 
highest promontory they find, for the purpose of seeing as far as possible, and there 
they station a man as a ‘sentinel, who seeing a whale, which they discover as much 
by its size as by the water which it spouts out of its blowholes, which is more than 
‘Lescarsot, Nova Francia, Or the Description of that part of New France which is one 
continent with Virginia, &c. Trans. by P. E. London, 1609, pp. 268-269. 
