10 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



land coast in May, 1612. The record for the 12th day of that month contains the 

 following note : 



[1612. BAFFIN'S FIRST RECORDED VOYAGE.] 



"This day [May 12, 1612] the water changed of a blackish colour; also, we 

 saw many whales and grampus's." ] 



This was near (and east of) Cape Farewell, which they sighted May 13th, and 

 again May 14th. In 1616, in the same month, Baffin was once more in Greenland 

 waters, and the narrative of that voyage contains an interesting account of the find- 

 ing of a dead whale in Davis Strait somewhat north of Disco Island. Baffin 

 records the incident thus : 



[1616. BAFFIN'S SECOND VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. (FIFTH RECORDED VOYAGE.)] 



"The two and twentieth day [of May, 1616], at a north sunne, wee set saile 

 and plyed still northward, the winde being right against vs as we stood off and 

 on. Vpon the sixe and twentieth day, in the al'ternoone, we found a dead whale, 

 about sixe and twentie leagues from shoare, hauing all her finnes [whalebone]. 

 Then making our ship fast, wee vsed the best means wee could to get them, and 

 with much toile got a hundred and sixtie that euening. The next morning the sea 

 went uery high, and the wiude arising, the whale broke from vs, and we were 

 forced to leaue her and set saile, and hauing not stood past three or foure leagues 

 north-westward, came to the ice, then wee tacked and stood to the shoare-ward, a 

 sore stornie ensued. 1 '" 



This dead whale is mentioned again in a letter which Baffin wrote to Sir John 

 Wolstenholme, one of the principal promoters of the enterprise, in connection with 

 quite extended remarks on the whales of Baffin Bay, so that we are enabled to 

 identify it as a Greenland Right whale. The paragraphs which are pertinent to 

 our subject are as follows : 



[1616. BAFFIN'S LETTER TO SIR JOHN WOLSTENHOLME.] 



"Now that the worst is knowne (concerning the passage) it is necessarie and 

 requisite your worship should vnderstand what probabilitie and hope of profit 

 might here be made hereafter, if the voyage might bee attempted by fitting men. 

 And first, for the killing of whales; certaine it is, that in this Bay [Baffin Bay] 

 are great numbers of them, which the Biscayners call the Grand Bay whales, of 

 the same kind as are killed at Greenland, and as it seemeth to me, easie to be 

 strooke, because they are not vsed to be chased or beaten. For we being but one 

 day in Whale Sound (so called for the number of whales we saw there sleeping, 

 and lying aloft on the water, not fearing our ship, or ought else) ; that if we had 

 beene fitted with men and things necessaiie, it had beene no hard matter to haue 

 strooke more then would have made three ships a sauing voyage ; and that it is of 

 that sort of whale, theare is no feare ; I being twise at Greeneland, tooke sufficient 

 notice to know them againe ; besides a dead whale we found at sea, hauing all her 



'The Voyages of William Baffin. Ed. by C. R. Markham. Hakluyt Soc., 1881, p. 7. From 

 Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels, 6, 1732, pp. 241-251. Written by John Gatonbe. 

 2 Op. cit., pp. 139-140. From Purchas. Written by Baffin. 



