THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 1 1 



finnes (or rather all the rough of her mouth), of which with much labour we got 

 one hundred and sixtie the same evening we found her; and if that foule wether 

 and a stonne the next day had not followed, we had no doubt but to haue had all, 

 or the most part of them : hut the winde and sea rising, shee broke from vs, and 

 we were forced to leave her. Neither are they onely to be looked for in Whale 

 Sound, but also in Smith's Sound, Wolstenholme's Sound, and others, etca." . . . 

 (Pp. 146-147.) 



" As concerning what the shore will yeeld, as beach-finnes, morse-teeth, and 

 such like, I can say little, because we came not on shore in any of the places where 

 hope was of findinge them. 



" But here som may object why we sought that coast no better? To this I 

 answere, that while we were thereabout, the wether was so exceeding foule, we 

 could not. . . . When we had coasted the land so farre to the southward, that 

 hope of passage was none, then the yeere was too farre spent [to seek a harbor], 

 and many of our men very weake, and withall we hauing some beliefe that ships 

 the next yeere would be sent for the killing of whales, which might doe better 

 than we." (Pp. 147-148.) 



"And seeing I have briefly set doune what hope there is of making a profit- 

 able voyage, it is not vnfit your worship should know what let or hindrance might 

 be to the same. The chiefest and greatest cause is, that som yeere it may happen by 

 reason of the ice lying betweene 72 and a halfe and 76 degrees, no minutes, that the 

 ships cannot com into those places till toward the middest of July, so that want of 

 time to stay in the countrey may be some let : yet they may well tarry till the last 

 of August, in which space much businesse may be done, and good store of oile 

 made. Neuerthelesse, if store of whales come in (as no feare to the contrarie) what 

 cannot be made in oyle, may be brought home in blubber, and the finnes will arise 

 to good profit. Another hinderance will be, because the bottorne of the sounds 

 will not be so soone cleere as would bee wished ; by meanes whereof, now and then 

 a whale may be lost. (The same case sometimes chanceth in Greeneland [i. e. 

 Spitzbergen].) Yet, I am perswaded those sounds before named [Whale, Smith, and 

 Wolstenholme] will all be cleere before the twentieth of July : for we, this yeere, 

 were in Whale Sound the fourth day, amongst many whales, and might have 

 strooke them without let of ice." l 



This letter, which is undated, relates to the second voyage, 1616. 



The use of the name " Grand Bay whale " in this letter for the Greenland 

 Right whale attracted the attention of Eschricht and Reinhardt, and they enter 

 into an elaborate discussion as to its significance in relation to the primitive distri- 

 bution of the species in their exhaustive memoir. 8 



Thomas Edge was in Spitzbergen at the same time as Baffin, and in the narra- 

 tive of his " ten several voyages" thither he takes pains to insert a description of 

 the various species of whales found in those waters. The description begins thus : 



[1610-1622. VOYAGES OF THOMAS EDGE TO SPITZBERGEN.] 



"There are eight sorts of whales: The first is called the Grand-Bay, from a 

 place in New-found-land, where they were first killed ; he is black, with a smooth 



'Voyages towards the Northwest.' Ed. by Thos. Rundall. Hakluyt Soc., 1849, pp. 146- 

 149. From Furchas. 



' Om Nordhvalen. Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. t 5 Rtekkc, naturvid. og math. Afd., Bd. 5, p. 459. 



