70 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 
court of admiralty to be held to adjudicate on a drift-whale found floating near 
Brewster’s [ Mass. |], and towed ashore in August.” ’ 
“ By the inhabitants of Martha’s Vineyard, in 1702-8, there appear to have 
been several whales killed. The following entry occurs under that date in the 
court records: ‘The marks of the [3] whales killed by John Butler and Thomas 
Lathrop. ... These whales were all killed about the middle of February last past ; 
all great whales, betwixt six and seven and eight foot bone, which are all gone 
from us.’”? 
“Tn the News-Letter | Boston] of August 8, 1765, is the following statement: 
‘Tuesday one of the sloops which has been on the Whaling Business returned 
here. We hear that the vessels employed in the Whale Fishery from this and the 
neighboring Maritime Towns, amounting to near 100 Sail, have been very success- 
ful this Season in the Gulph of St. Lawrence and Streights of Belle isle; having, 
tis said, already made upwards of 9,000 Barrels of Oil.” * 
On p. 47, Starbuck quotes the proclamation of Gov. Hugh Palliser, dated 
August 1, 1766, a part of which is as follows: 
“ Whereas great Numbers of the Whaling Crews arriving from the Plantations 
on the Coast of Labradore early in the Spring considering it as a lawless Country 
are guilty of all Sorts of Outrages before the arrival of the King’s Ships. . . . For 
preventing these Practices in future Notice is hereby given That the King’s Officers 
stationed in those Parts, are authorized and strictly directed, to apprehend all such 
Offenders within this Government. . . . This Notification is to be put in the 
Harbours in Labradore, within my Government, and through the Favour of His 
Excellency Governour Bernard, Copies thereof will be put up in the Ports within 
the Province of Massachusetts, where the Whalers mostly belong, for their In- 
formation before the next Fishing Season.” 
On p. 49, the following remarks are made: 
“It was currently reported in the colonies, during the early part of 1767, that 
the irksome restrictions upon whaling were to be entirely removed; petitions to 
that effect had been presented to the home government, and a favorable result was 
hoped for, and early in 1768 the straits of Davis and Belle Isle were again vexed 
by the keels of our [ American] fishermen, as many as 50 or 60 anchoring in Canso 
Harbor in April of that year, a few of them bound for the former locality, but the 
majority of them cruising in the vicinity of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and New- 
foundland. (From a log-book kept by Isaiah Eldredge, of the Sloop Zyrall, of 
Dartmouth, which sailed April 25, 1768, for the straits of Belle Isle. She cleared 
from Nantucket, as Dartmouth was not then a port of entry. On Friday, April 
29, she was at anchor in Canso Harbor; with 50 or 60 other whalemen. Satur- 
day, May 7, left Crow Harbor and at night anchored in Man-of-War Cove, Canso 
Gut, ‘with about 60 sail of wailmen.’ The vessels were continually beset with ice 
and on the 28d of May they cleared their decks of snow, which was ‘almost over 
shoes deep.’ They killed their first whale on the 22d of July. The larger num- 
ber of vessels were spoken in pairs, which was the usual manner of cruising. The 
sloop returned to Dartmouth on the 5th of November).” 
* STARBUCK, Pp. 35. * [bid., pp. 35-36. * [bid., pp. 44-45. 
