THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTIL ATLANTIC. 43 
The whalebone whales are brought together under the genus Galena as 
follows: Balena mysticetus | Bowhead], B. physalus [Common Finback |, B. boops 
[Humpback], 2. rostrata [Little Piked whale], and 4. musculus. This last was 
not known to Fabricius himself, and he remarks regarding it: “A whale known 
under a Greenlandic name allied to the preceding [_2. doops], and rarely seen, which 
indeed its name indicates. I am perplexed regarding the synonyms of it and the 
wonderful confusion of them among authors; and being denied by fate to see one 
of them, I am able to determine nothing with certainty.” 
In 1818 Fabricius gave a further description of the Greenland Humpback, 
under the name of “Stub-Hval.”' He treats of its name, external characters and 
coloration, distribution and migrations, food, uses, enemies and parasites, and syn- 
onymy. The figure which accompanies the article, though interesting, is grossly 
inaccurate In many particulars. It is quite as good, however, as many others of its 
time. That it was not made use of by compilers subsequently is somewhat 
singular. 
An important list of American cetaceans was published in 1782 in a work 
whose title—Letters from an American Farmer—one would hardly expect to find 
in a bibliography of cetology.” The author, Hector St. John de Crévecceur, seems 
to have had more or less knowledge of the whaling industry from practical experi- 
ence, and states that he was “well acquainted” with one kind of whale. His list 
purports to comprise the species known to the people of Nantucket, and reflects 
an accuracy of knowledge which is remarkable for its time. 
“The river St. Laurence whale [he remarks] which is the only one I am 
well acquainted with, is seventy-five feet long, sixteen deep, twelve in the length 
of its bone (which commonly weighs 3000 Ib.), twenty in the breadth of their tails, 
and produces 180 barrels of oil.” * 
This is, of course, the Bowhead, and its mention in this manner seems to sup- 
port the assertion made by Thomas Edge more than a century before (1625), that 
the Bowhead at a still earlier date was taken in the “Grand Bay of Newfoundland” 
[Strait of Belle Isle]. See page 11. 
De Crévecceur proceeds: “The following are the names and principal character- 
istics of the various species of whales known to these people [of Nantucket and 
Martha’s Vineyard |: 
“The River St. Laurence whale, just described. 
“The disko, or Greenland ditto. 
“The right whale, or seven feet bone, common on the coasts of this country, 
about sixty feet long. 
"Fapricius, O., Zoologiske Bidrag. 2det Bidrag. Om Stub-Hvalen, Balena Boops. K. 
Danske Videns. Selsk. Skrivter, 6, 1818, pp. 63-83, 1 pl. (unnumbered), fig. r. 
* Letters from an American Farmer describing the British Colonies in North America, London, 
1782, pp. 167-169. Allen (Bibliog., p. 472), states that “ In the French edition of 1767 [Zege 1787], 
the letter about the whale-fishery is dated ‘ Nantucket, 17 Octobre, 1772.’ ”’ 
* Op. cit., p. 167. 
