THE GIANTS OF LABKADOR. 159 



coast of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to 

 about 10 degrees of south latitude. They stay there 

 until the month of September, and then bring forth 

 their young. They afterwards migrate westward, 

 towards the islands of Tristan de Cunha, or the 

 coasts of Paraguay or Patagonia. 



But the pursuit to which these creatures have 

 been subjected by the whale-fishers has caused 

 many changes in their habits and localities. Cen- 

 turies have elapsed since whales deserted the Medi- 

 terranean, although, beyond a doubt, in former days 

 they appeared there, as w^e learn from Plutarch, 

 Pliny, and several other ancient writers. The 

 smaller kinds of whales were at this time the 

 objects of an important fishery in the Grecian 

 w^aters. 



Later on, until the thirteenth or fourteenth cen- 

 turies, the fishermen of the Bay of Biscay followed 

 the whale fishery with ardour, and as they retired 

 further and further from the shore, the bold navi- 

 gators exercised their ingenuity in discovering the 

 places of their retreat. They pursued them across 

 the ocean, and reached even (so it is said) the shores 

 of Canada, discovering the banks of Newfoundland 

 on the way back, where they busied themselves with 

 fishing for cod. It is to these circumstances, doubt- 

 less, that the fable is due which was circulated 

 shortly after the death of Christopher Columbus, 

 concerning a Biscay an pilot, who (according to 



