74 American Fisheries Society 



uscript from a Boston paper, of contemporary date. The 

 old log books are of particular interest. They were usual- 

 ly written by the captain of the whaler, who used a 

 wooden rubber stamp depicting a whale, and if said 

 whale was killed, the stamp appears lengthwise on the 

 page and in a blank space on his side was written in the 

 number of barrels of oil he tried out; but if he escaped, 

 a stamp showing only his tail was used perpendicularly. 



In conjunction with this whaling collection, there is a 

 complete collection of all the lances, spades, bombs and 

 guns used in the capture and chase of the whale; also a 

 very fine collection of scrimshaw, as the etched and 

 carved work done by the whalers on whale teeth, is called. 

 Many teeth are beautifully engraved with whaling 

 scenes, battle scenes of the war of 1812, portraits, etc. 

 Three very valuable ones, charming in design and color, 

 are the work of Edward G. Malbone, the celebrated min- 

 iature painter, done in his youth. They represent the 

 heathen gods and goddesses. The remainder of the set 

 the owner has never been able to trace. Included amongst 

 this scrimshaw is a fine collection of buskbones as worn 

 by our ancestresses, made from whale bone and ivory 

 and beautifully engraved; also a large collection of jig- 

 gers or pie crust cutters, also made from whale ivory by 

 the whalers. 



Another very interesting part of the collection con- 

 sists of the prints, which number several thousand, all 

 on the subject of angling or fishing, or containing per- 

 sons angling or fishing. They date back from the earli- 

 est woodcuts to the latest work of the modern illustra- 

 tor and engraver. There are many volumes of colored 

 illustrations of fish alone, done by various artists in va- 

 rious lands, notably 246 examples done by a Chinese 

 artist on rice paper and most artistically drawn and 

 colored. The late Professor Agassiz told the owner he 

 considered them the most beautiful examples of fish por- 

 traiture he had ever seen. As a companion to this is a 

 book of Indian fishes drawn and colored by a native East 

 Indian, but in no way so fine and noticeable. 



