THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 37 
shape, one e being call’d a Bottle-Nosed Whale, the other a Shovel-Nose [shark ?], 
which is as different as a Salmon from a Sturgeon. : 
“There is another sort of these Whales, or great Fish, ‘though not common, I 
never knew of above one of that sort, found on the Coast of North Carolina, and 
he was contrary, in Shape, to all others ever found before him, being sixty Foot in 
Length, and not above three or four Foot Diameter [Finback ?].” ? 
Lawson includes, without comment, Acosta’s story, published more than a 
century before, of the Florida Indians killing whales by driving plugs into their 
blowholes. 
In Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, the first edition of which was pub- 
lished in 1731-33, we read only that “whales of different species are sometimes 
east on shore, as are Grampus’s, in storms and hurricanes.” 
Brickell, in 1737, in his Natural History of North Carolina, repeats parts 
of Lawson (1709) word for word, with some unimportant additions of his own.® 
In 1725 we meet with the first original account of the whales of New England 
by an American colonist. This contribution, entitled “An Essay upon the Natural 
History of Whales,” * was written by Paul Dudley, Chief-Justice of Massachusetts, 
who was at once a jurist, a theologian, and a naturalist. He probably had little 
acquaintance with the subject from his own observation, and took his informa- 
tion at second or even at third hand. He tells us that he was informed 
regards ambergris by a Mr. Atkins of Boston, a practical whaler, “one of the first 
that went out a fishing for the Sperma Ceti whales,” and that on the other topics 
he had the assistance of Mr. J. Coffin of Nantucket and Rey. Mr. Greenleafe of 
Yarmouth. 
Dudley’s essay, on account of the amount of original and generally accurate 
information it contains, deserves to take rank with those of Martens, Sibbald, 
Scoresby, and Zorgdrager. It is not a systematic treatise, but the several kinds of 
whales occurring on the New England coast are named and briefly described, with 
notes on their habits, reproduction, and other matters. The whales mentioned 
are: (1) “The Right, or Whalebone Whale”; (2) “The Scrag Whale”; (3) “The 
Finback Whale;” (4) “The Bunch, or Humpback Whale”; (5) “The Sperma Ceti 
Whale.” 
All of these are recognizable and have been assigned to their proper places 
generically, except the “Scrag” whale, which is, and always has been, a stumbling- 
block to cetology. It was accepted, without criticism, as a separate species by 
Klein, Anderson, and other writers. In 1869, Nathaniel E. Atwood, a practical 
fisherman, and a well educated and observant man, who resided for many years at 
Provincetown, Mass., stated that the whalers there recognized a “Scrag” whale, 
but regarded it as the young of the Right whale.2 Scammon remarks: “Our 
* Op. cit., pp. 153-154. Lawson was Surveyor-General of North Carolina. 
* This is from the edition of 1743, vol. 2, p. xxxii, which, however, appears not to differ from 
the original edition. 
* BRICKELL, J., The Natural History of North Carolina, 1737, pp. 215-226. 
* Philos. Trans., 33, No. 387, Mch. and Apr., 1725, pp. 256-269. 
* ALLEN, J. A., Catalogue of the Mammals of Massachusetts. Bu//. Mus. Comp. Zodl., 1, No. 8, 
1869, p. 203. 
