THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 69 
“Tn April (4th), 1656, the council of New York ‘received a request of Hans 
Jongh, soldier and tanner, asking for a ton of train-oil, or some fat of the whale 
lately captured.’ ”? 
“Francis Nicholson, writing from Fort James, December, 1688, says—‘ Our 
whalers have had pretty good luck, killing about Graves End [Long Island] three 
large whales. On the Easte End aboute five or six small ones.’ ” 
“Tn 1708, under Lord Cornbury, an act was passed for the ‘ Encouragement 
of Whaling’ [at Long Island], in which it was provided, 1st, that any Indian, who 
was bound to go to sea whale-fishing, should not ‘at any time or times between 
the First Day of November and the Fifteenth Day of April following, yearly, be 
sued,’” ete.* 
“<Tn 1719, February 24, a [ Long Island] whaleboat being alone, the men struck 
a whale, and she, coming up under ye boat, in part staved it.’” * 
“Under date of March 20, 1727, the Boston News-Letter says: ‘We hear from 
the Towns on the Cape [Cod] that the Whale Fishery among them has failed much 
this winter, as it has done for several Winters past, but having found out the way 
of going to Sea Upon that Business, and having had much Success in it, they are 
now fitting out several Vessels to sail with all Expedition upon that dangerous 
Design this Spring, more (its tho’t) than have ever been out from among them.’”® 
“The same paper in its issue of February 12, 1730, contains the following 
extract from a letter from Chatham [ Mass. ], dated ‘February 6, 1729-80’: ‘There 
has been a remarkable Providence in the awful death of some of my neighbors ; 
on the day commonly called New Year’s Day, a whaleboat’s Crew coming home 
from a Place called Hog’s-Back, where they had been on a Whaling design, the 
Boat was overset, and all the Men lost, on a reaf of Sand that lies out against 
Billingsgate.’ ” ® 
“In March, 1736, the inhabitants of Provincetown captured a large whale at 
sea, cut him up, and brought the blubber into that port. The estimated quantity 
of oil that this blubber would produce was 100 barrels.” * 
“The season of 1737-8 must have been an unfortunate one at Provincetown 
[Mass.], for up to January 5, 1738, the people of that town had only killed two 
small whales, and some of the inhabitants took into serious consideration a change 
of residence. In July, 1788, Captain Anthony Hough, master of a whaling vessel, 
took ‘in the Straits’ [of Belle Isle] a large whale, and brought him to the vessel’s side 
tocutin. . . . In February, 1738, the Yarmouth [Mass.] whalemen had killed 
but one large whale during the season ; the bone of that one was from 8 to 9 feet 
long. Nor was the whaling-season of 1738-9 any more successful to the inhabit- 
ants of the Cape [Cod]. Up to the 15th of February, 1739—the whaling-season 
being then over—there had been taken at Provincetown [Mass.| but six small and 
one large whale, and at Sandwich [Mass.| two more small ones.” * 
“Tn August, 1723, a drift-whale is advertised in the Boston News-Letter as 
ashore at Marblehead [ Mass. |” ? 
“The Boston papers of December 12, 1707, state that a whale 40 feet long 
entered that harbor and several whale-boats pursued and killed her near the back 
of Noddle’s Island.” ” 
“We find in the News-Letter of September 3, 1722, an advertisement of a 
* STARBUCK, p. 11. From WV. Y. Coll. MSS., 6, p. 354. *Tbid., pp. 31-32. 
*Tbid., p. 15. From AZass. Coll. MSS., 6, p. 303. "Tbid., p. 32. 
*[bid., p. 25. From Bradford’s Laws of New York, p. 72. *[bid., Pp. 32-33- 
*Tbid., p. 30. From Hedges in WV. Y. Col. Rec., 5, p. 579. *[bid., p. 34. 
“bid. p. 31. "ihn Ws. Byte 
