CHAPTER I. 



THE EARLIEST REFERENCES TO WHALEBONE WHALES IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



The first reference to cetaceans in American waters is in the Saga of Thorfinn 

 Karlsefne, giving an account of his voyage to Vinland. DeCosta's translation 

 contains the following : 



" Afterward a whale was cast ashore in that place [Stream Bay] ; and they 

 assembled and cut it up, not knowing what kind of whale it was. They boiled it 

 with water; and ate it, and were taken sick. Then Thorhall said 'Now you see 

 that Thor is more prompt to give aid than your Christ. This was cast ashore as a 

 reward for the hymn which I composed to my patron Thor, who rarely forsakes me.' 

 When they knew this, they cast all the remains of the whale into the sea and com- 

 mended their affairs to God. From that time there was an abundance of food ; and 

 there were beasts on the land, eggs in the island, and fish in the sea." ' 



DeCosta gives this the date of 1008 A.D., and identifies Stream Bay with 

 Buzzard's Bay, Mass. Beamish 2 has a note to the effect that " this whale was 

 probably a species of the Balcena pJiysalis of Linnaeus, which was not edible, and 

 being rarely seen in the Greenland and Iceland seas, was unknown to the Northmen." 

 This is hardly probable as Balcena physalus of Linnaeus is the common Finback of 

 European waters and is edible. It may have been abottlenosed whale of the genus 

 Hyperoodon, the fat of which is purgative. The fact that the Northmen could throw 

 the remains into the sea shows that it was not one of the large whales. 



GREENLAND, DAVIS STRAIT, AND BAFFIN BAY. 



The narrative of Iver Boty (or Burt), mattre fllibtel of the Bishop of Greenland, 

 as quoted from the papers of Barents in Henry Hudson's possession, contains the 

 following notice of whales : 



" Item, from Skageu Ford east lyeth a hauen called Beare Ford : it is not 

 dwelt in. In the mouth thereof lyeth a riffe [reef], so that great ships can not 

 harbour in it. 



" Item, there is great abundance of whales ; and there is a great fishing for the 

 killing of them there, but not without the bishop's consent, which keepeth the same 



1 DECOSTA, B. F., The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen, 2d ed., 1890, 

 pp. 125-126. 



3 BEAMISH, N. L., Discovery of America by the Northmen, 1841, p. 91, foot-note. 



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