6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



neighboring tribes as a present of iDeculiar value.* Scammon says :t " It 

 has been stated by several writers that the American colonists followed 

 up the ludiau mode of capturing the whale, by first striking it with a 

 harpoon having a log of wood attached to it by a line, even as late as 

 the commencement of the Sperm Whale fishery." It is quoted that the 

 Hon. Paul Dudley stated: "Our people formerly used to kill the whale 

 near the shore, but now they go off to sea in sloops and ichale-hoats. 

 Sometimes the whale is killed by a single stroke, and yet at other times 

 she will hold the whalemen in play near liaJf a day together^ with their 

 lances ; and sometimes they Mill get away after they have been lanced and 

 spouted thick blood, with irons in them, and drags (droges) fastened to 

 them, which are thick boards about fourteen inches square." * * * 

 " We are of the opinion, however, that the colonial whalers did not follow 

 the Indian mode of whale-tishing ; for it is well known that the British 

 whalers, as early as 1670, used the line attached to the boat, and, so far 

 as the drags or 'droges' are concerned, they are used at the present day 

 in cases of emergency.l 



As early as 1639, Massachusetts, with an eye to the importance of the 

 fisheries, passed an act to encourage them. By its provisions all vessels 

 employed in taking or transporting fish were exempted from all duties 

 and taxes for the term of seven years, and all fishermen were exempted 

 from military service during the fishing season. As important, as the 

 pursuit of whaling seemed to have been considered by the first settlers, 

 many years seem to have elapsed before it was followed as a business, 

 though probably something was attempted in that direction prior to 

 any recorded account that we have. The subject of drift-whales ap- 

 pears to have attracted considerable importance both in the Plymouth 

 and the Massachusetts Bay colonies. The colonial government claimed 

 a portion, a portion was allowed to the town, and the finder, if no other 



* Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, p. 85. Among the Montauk luclians the most savory sacra- 

 fice to their deity was the tail or fiu of the whale. (Hedge's Address, p. 35.) The 

 Greenlander's idea of Heaven, according to Father Hennepin, -was a place where there 

 would be an immense cauldron continually boiling, and each could take as much seal 

 blubber, ready cooked, as he wanted. 



t Marine Mammalia and American Whale Fishery, p. 204, note. 



lit would appear from Purchas' account that liues were used to attach the boat to 

 the whale as early as 1613. He writes: " I might here recreate your wearied eyes with 

 a hunting siiectacle of the greatest chase which nature yieldeth ; I mean the killing of 

 a whale. When they espy him on the top of the water (which he is forced to for to 

 take breath), they row toward him in a shallop, in which the harponeer stands ready 

 with both his hands to dart his harping iron, to which is faslened a line of such length 

 that the ivhale {tvhich suddenly fteling himself hm-t, sinleth to the bottom,) may carry it doum 

 with him, being before fitted that the shallop be not therewith cndangtred; coming up again, 

 they strike him with lances made for that purpose, about twelve feet long, the iron 

 eight thereof, and the blade eighteen mches— the harping iron principally sa-ving to/asten 

 him to the shallop, and thus they hold him in such pursuit, till after streams of water, 

 and next of blood, cast up into the air and water, (as angry with both elements, which 

 have brought thither such weak hands for his destruction,) he at length yieldeth up 

 his slain carcass as meed to the conquerors." 



