THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 29 
Coast. I have myself killed many of them. Their Females have abundance of 
Milk, which their young ones suck out of the Teats, that grow by their Navell. 
They have no Teeth, but feed on Mosse, growing on the Rocks at the bottom 
during these three Moneths, and at no other season of the Year. When that is 
consumed and gone, the Whales go away also. These we kill for their Oyl. But 
here have been Sperma-Ceti-Whales driven upon the shore, which Sperma (as 
they call it) lies all over the Body of those Whales. These have divers Teeth, 
which may be about as big as a Man’s wrist; and I hope by the next opportunity 
to send you one of them. I have been at ‘the Bahama-lslands, and there have 
been found of this same sort of Whales dead on the shore, with Sperma all over 
their Bodies. Myself with about 20 more have agreed to try, whether we can 
master and kill them, for I could never hear of any of that sort, that were kill’d 
by any man; such is their fierceness and swiftness. One such Whale would be 
worth many hundred pounds. They are very strong, and inlay’d with sinews all 
over their Body, which may be drawn out thirty fathom long.” ? 
There are various statements regarding this fishery in the colonial records of 
the Bermudas, a large body of which was published in convenient form by Sir J. 
H. Lefroy in 1879." These include the papers of Norwood and Stafford already 
quoted, but are chiefly orders of the proprietors of the islands to the successive 
governors concerning the regulation of the fishery, reports of the governors to the 
proprietors, and various proclamations and court decisions relating to the conduct 
of the industry. In these papers references are occasionally made to the seasons 
in which the whales appear at the islands, and some other allusions to their habits, 
but very little is said regarding the whales themselves. 
While many complaints were made by the proprietors in London that whale 
oil was not sent them as it should have been, whalebone is seldom referred to. 
It is usually mentioned as something which might be expected to form a valuable 
product of the industry, but never as a product actually in hand. From this it 
would appear that to the close of the 17th century at least, the Right whale 
was not taken at the islands, for it is not probable that the valuable whalebone of 
that species would have been ignored. 
We hear nothing of the Bermuda Hump back fishery again for a very long 
time. Mr. J. Matthew Jones, of Nova Scotia, stated in 1884, that it was “ prose- 
cuted by the islanders with more or less success from the earliest times until the 
present.”® He seems to be of the opinion, however, that the Right whale was the 
species sought for, but there is very good reason to believe that the statements of 
Norwood and Stafford, in 1667 and 1668, relate to the same whale as that mentioned 
in the anonymous accounts of 1665, an the latter was undoubtedly the Hump- 
back. Later, the Right whale may have been captured, as it was on the coast 
of New England, and it is possible that at a comparatively early date attention 
‘STAFFORD, RICHARD, An Extract of a Letter, written to the Publisher from the Bermudas by 
Mr. Richard Stafford ; concerning the Tydes there, as also whales, Sperma Ceti, (etc.). Bermuda, 
July 16, 1668. Philos. Trans., 3, No. 40, 1668, pp. 792-794. 
*Lerroy, J. H., Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers 
Islands, 1511-1687. 2 vols., London, 1877-79. 
* Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 25, 1884, p. 148. 
