THE AMEBIC AN WHALE-FISHERY. 1S7 
the inhabitants of Massachusetts were making their first attempts in the capture of 
the whale (about 1650), the Biscayans had already extensively engaged in that 
business ; the Dutch and the English had followed their example ; the Russian 
Company had obtained an exclusive charter for it, and many other nations of 
Europe had directed their attention to the northern fisheries." 
"It is probably true, as has been sometimes contended," says M'Culloch, "that 
the Norwegians occasionally captured the whale before an} 7 other European nation 
engaged in so perilous an enterprise. But the early efforts of the Norwegians were 
not conducted on any systematic plan, and should only be regarded in the same 
point of view as the fishing expeditions of the Esquimaux. The Biscayans were 
certainly the first people who prosecuted the whale-fishery as a regular commercial 
pursuit. They carried it on with great vigor and success in the twelfth, thirteenth, 
and fourteenth centuries. In 1261, a tithe was laid upon the tongues of whales 
imported into Bayonne, they being there a highly esteemed species of food. In 
1388, Edward III relinquished to Peter de Puayanne a duty of six pounds sterling 
a whale, laid on those brought into the port of Biarritz, to indemnify him for the 
extraordinary expenses he had incurred in fitting out a fleet for the service of his 
majesty. This fact proves beyond dispute that the fishery carried on from Biarritz 
at the period referred to must have been very considerable indeed ; and it was also 
prosecuted to a great extent from Cibourre, Vieux Boucan, and subsequently from 
Rochelle and other places. The whales captured by the Biscayans were not so 
large as those that are taken in the Polar Seas, and are supposed to have been 
attracted southward in the pursuit of herrings. They were not very productive of 
oil, but their flesh was used as an article of food, and the whalebone was applied 
to a variety of useful purposes, and brought a very high price." 
In 1554, Pierre Belon writes concerning the Right Whale, or at least one of 
the baleen whales, as follows: "The animal which we call the whale (baleen) was 
named by the ancient Greeks, phakne; by the Latins, halena; and is designated by 
the Italians as the capodogllo (oil -head). It is generally considered to be the 
largest of all fishes, as may well be supposed from the size of the bones and ribs 
of the animal, which is enormous, so that they have been much wondered at when 
exhibited. It is for this reason that some have called it the Cete. There is no 
ground for believing that the whale has two large horns on its head, as some have 
drawn this animal ; but there is a kind of tube on the upper part of the head, 
which does not, however, rise above the skin, and the existence of which only 
becomes apparent when the animal throws out the water through it, which has 
been taken in by the muzzle. This it does sometimes with such violence that 
