THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 9 



of Cumberland Sound] a great whale passed by us, and swam west in among 

 the isles." 1 



Twenty years later Henry Hudson was in Greenland waters, seeking like his 

 predecessors that ignis fatuus, the Northwest Passage to Cathay. In the narratives 

 of his voyages there are occasional references to whales. The earliest of these, in 

 the narrative of the first voyage in 1607, is as follows: 



[1607. HUDSON'S FIRST VOYAGE.] 



"Also wee saw [June IS 1 . 11 ] a whale close by the shoare. Wee called the 

 head-land which we saw Youngs Cape; and neere it standeth a very high mount, 

 like a round castle, which wee called the Mount of Gods Mercie." 2 



This place appears to have been in Hudson Strait. A few days later we find 

 another reference : 



"This day [June 18, 1607] we saw three whales neere our ship, and having 

 steered away north-east almost one watch, five leagues, the sea was growne every 

 way." 3 



This appears to have been on the east coast of Greenland. Finally, in that 

 narrative of Hudson's last voyage, by Prickett, which contains the tragic story of 

 his fate, we find another mention of whales, as follows : 



[1610. HUDSON'S FOURTH AND LAST VOYAGE.] 



" Our course [soon after the 4* of June, 1610] for the most part was betweene 

 the west and north-west, till we raysed the Desolations, which is a great iland in 

 the west part of Groueland. On this coast we saw store of whales, and at one 

 time three of them came close by us, so as wee could hardly shunne them : then two 

 passing very neere, and the third going under our ship, wee received no harme by 

 them, praysed be God." 4 



This locality was in the vicinity of Cape Farewell, the "Desolations" being 

 on either side of that cape. In the perusal of this account one is reminded very 

 forcibly of Scammon's description of the habits of the Common Finback of the North 

 Pacific, Balwnoptera vetifera Cope. " It frequently gambols about vessels at sea," 

 he writes, " in mid-ocean as well as close in with the coast, darting under them or 

 shooting swiftly through the water on either side, at one moment upon the surface, 

 belching forth its quick ringing spout, and the next instant submerged deep 

 beneath the waves." 5 



Close after Hudson follows Baffin, who was pilot of the ship Discovery for the 

 company for the discovery of the Northwest Passage, and approached the Green- 



1 Voyages toward the Northwest. Ed. by Thos. Rundall. Hakluyt Soc., 1849, p. 47. Davis's 

 Traverse Book. From Hakluyt, 3, pp. 153, 154. 



"Henry Hudson, the Navigator. Ed. by Geo. Asher. Hakluyt Soc., 1860, p. 3. 



1 Op. at., p. 4. 



4 Op. at., p. 99. 



"Prof. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1869, p. 52. 



