258 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



while the boat is approaching, the harpooner i possible away. It is some time before the 



stands aloft, and with his harpoon tied to a 

 cord of several hundred fathoms length, darts 

 it into the animal, and then rows as fast as 



continued thus to act, though closely pursued by the 

 boats; and, inspired with courage and resolution by the 

 concern for her offspring, seemed regardless of the danger 

 which surrounded her. At length one of the boats ap- 

 proached so near that a harpoon was hove at her. It 

 hit, but did not attach itself. A second harpoon was 

 struck ; this also failed to penetrate ; but a third was 

 more effectual, and held. Still she did not attempt to 

 escape ; but allowed other boats to approach ; so that, in 

 a few minutes, three more harpoons were fastened, and 

 in the course of an hour afterward she was killed. 



There is something extremely painful in the destruc- 

 tion of a whale, when thus evincing a degree of affec- 

 tionate regard for its offspring, that would do honour to 

 the superior intelligence of human beings ; yet the ob- 

 ject of the adventure, the value of the prize, the joy of 

 the capture, cannot be sacrificed to feelings of compas- 

 sion. Whales, though often found in great numbers 

 together, can scarcely be said to be gregarious; found 

 most generally solitary, or in pairs, excepting when 

 drawn to the same spot by the attraction of an abundance 

 of palatable food, or a choice situation of the ice. 



The superiority of the sexes, in point of numbers, 

 seems to be in favour of the male. Of 124 whales which 

 have been taken near Spitzbergen, in eight years, in 

 ships commanded by myself, 70 were males, and 54 

 were females, being in the proportion to five to four 

 nearly. The mysticetus occurs most abundantly in the 

 frozen seas of Greenland and Davis's Strait in the bays 

 of Baffin and Hudson in the sea to the northward of 

 Behring's Strait, and along some parts of the northern 

 shores of Asia, and probably America. It is never met 

 with in the German ocean, and rarely within 200 leagues 

 of the British coast ; but along the coasts of Africa and 

 South America it is met with periodically in considera- 

 ble numbers. In these regions it is attacked and cap- 

 tured by the southern British and American whalers, as 

 well as by some of the people inhabiting the coasts, to 

 the neighbourhood of which it resorts. Whether this 

 whale is precisely of the same kind as that of Spitzber- 

 gen and Greenland, is uncertain, though it is evidently 

 a mysticetus. One striking difference, possibly the effect 

 of situation and climate, is, that the mysticetus found 

 in southern regions is often covered with barnacles, (Le- 

 pas diadema, &o.) while those of the Arctic seas are 

 free from these shell fish. 



It would be remarkable if an animal like the whale, 

 which is so timid that a bird alighting upon its back 

 sometimes sets it off in great agitation and terror, should 

 be wholly devoid of enemies. Besides man, who is 

 doubtless its most formidable adversary, it is subject to 

 annoyance from sharks, and it is also said from the nar- 

 whal, sword-fish, and thresher. With regard to the nar- 

 whal,! am persuaded that this opinion is incorrect, for so 

 far trom its being an enemy, it is found to associate with 

 the whale in the greatest apparent harmony, and its ap- 

 pearance, indeed, in the Greenland sea is hailed by the 

 fishers, the narwhal being considered as the harbinger of 

 the whale. But the sword-fish and thresher (if such an 

 animal there be) may possibly be among the enemies of 

 the whale, notwithstanding I have never witnessed their 

 combats; and the shark is known certainly to be an 

 enemy, though perhaps not a very formidable one. 

 Whales indeed flee the seas where it abounds, and evince 

 by marks occasionally found on their tails, a strong evi- 

 dence of their having been bit by the shark. A living 

 whale may be annoyed, though it can scarcely be sup- 

 posed to be ever overcome by the shark ; but a dead 



whale seems to feel the blow ; the instrument 

 has usually pierced no deeper than the fat, 

 and that being insensible, the animal con- 



whale is an easy prey, and affords a fine banquet to this 

 insatiable creature. 



The whale, from its vast bulk, and variety of pro- 

 ducts, is of great importance in commerce, as well as 

 in the domestic economy of savage nations ; and its oil 

 and whalebone are of extensive application in the arts 

 and manufactures. 



Though to the refined palate of a modern European, 

 the flesh of a whale, as an article of food, would be re- 

 ceived with abhorrence, yet we find that it is considered 

 by some of the inhabitants of the northern shores of 

 Europe, Asia, and America, as well as those on the 

 coasts of Hudson's Bay, and Davis's Strait, as a choice 

 and staple article of subsistence. The Esquimaux eat 

 the flesh and fat of the whale, and drink the oil with 

 greediness. Indeed, some tribes, who are not familiar- 

 ized with spirituous liquors, carry along with them in 

 their canoes, in their fishing excursions, bladders filled 

 with oil, which they nse in the same way, and with a 

 similar relish, that a British sailor does a dram. They 

 also eat the skin of the whale raw, both adults and chil- 

 dren ; for it is not uncommon, when the females visit 

 the whale-ships, for them to help themselves to pieces 

 of skin, preferring those with which a little blubber is 

 connected, and to give it as food to their infants sus- 

 pended on their backs, who suck it with apparent delight. 



Blubber, when pickled and boiled, is said to be very 

 palatable; the tail, when parboiled, and then fried, is 

 said to be not unsavoury, but even agreeable eating ; and 

 the flesh of young whales, I know from experiment, is 

 by no means indifferent food. 



Not only is it certain that the flesh of the whale is 

 now eaten by savage nations, but it is also well authen- 

 ticated that, in the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centur- 

 ies, it was used as food by the Icelanders, the Nether- 

 landers, the French, the Spanish, and probably by the 

 English. M. S. B. Noel, in a tract on the whale fish- 

 ery, informs us that about the 13th century the flesh, 

 particularly the tongue of the whales, was sold in the 

 markets of Bayonne, Cibourre, and Beariz, where it was 

 esteemed as a great delicacy, being used at the best 

 tables ; and even so late as the 15th century, he conceives, 

 from the authority of Charles Etienne, that the principal 

 nourishment of the poor in Lent, in some districts of 

 France, consisted of the flesh and fat of the whale. 



Besides forming a choice eatable, the inferior pro- 

 ducts of the whale are applied to other purposes by the 

 Indian and Esquimaux of arctic countries, and with 

 some nations are essential to their comfort ; some mem- 

 branes of the abdomen are used for an upper article of 

 clothing, and the peritoneum, in particular, being thin 

 and transparent, is used instead of glass in the windows 

 of their huts ; the bones are converted into harpoons and 

 spears, for striking the seal, or darting at the sea-birds, 

 and are also employed in the erection of their tents, and 

 with some tribes, in the formation of their boats ; the 

 sinews are divided into filaments, and used as thread, 

 with which they join the seams of their coats and tent 

 cloths, and sew with great taste and nicety the different 

 articles of dress they manufacture ; and the whalebone 

 and other superior products, so valuable in European 

 markets, have also their uses among them. 



I shall conclude this account of the mysticetus with 

 a sketch of some of the characters which belong generally 

 to cetaceous animals. 



Whales are viviparous ; they have but one young at 

 a time, and suckle it with teats. They are furnished 

 with lungs, and are under the necessity of approaching 



