THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 17 



yeare to the great riuer of Canada for the Whale. Commonly the fishing thereof 

 is made in the riuer called Lesquemin toward Tadoussac. And for to doe it 

 they goe by skowtes to make watch vpon the tops of rockes, to see if they may 

 haue the sight of some one : and when they haue discovered any, foorthwith 

 they goe with fower shaloupes after it, and hauing cunningly horded her, they 

 strike her with a harping iron to the depth of her lard, and to the quicke of the 

 flesh. Then this creature feeling herself e rudely pricked, with a dreadfull boister- 

 ousnesse casteth herselfe into the depth of the sea. The men in the meane while 

 are in their shirts, which vere out the cord whereunto the harping iron is tied, 

 which the whale carrieth away. But at the shaloupe side that hath giuen the blow 

 there is a man redy with a hatchet in hand to cut the said cord, least perchance 

 some accident should happen that it were mingled, or that the Whales force should 

 be too violent: which notwithstanding hauing found the bottome, and being able to 

 goe no further, she mounteth vp againe leasurely aboue the water : and then againe 

 she is set upon with glaue-staves, or pertuisanes, very sharp, so hotly that the salt- 

 water pierceing within her flesh she looseth her force, and remaineth there. Then 

 one tieth her to a cable at whose end is an anker which is cast into the sea, then at 

 the end of six or eight daies they goe to fetch her, when time and opportunity per- 

 mits it they cut her in peeces, and in great kettles doe seeth the fat which melteth 

 it selfe into oile, wherewith they may fill 400 Hogs-heads, sometimes more, and 

 sometimes lesse, according to the greatnesse of the beast, and of the tongue com- 

 monly they draw flue, yea six hogs-heads full of traine." [Then follows quotation 

 from Acosta's account of Indians taking whales in Florida.] 1 



When Champlain was returning from Tadoussac on the St. Lawrence River to 

 France, 1610, his vessel ran into a whale and he takes the occasion to describe the 

 whale fishery in detail, as follows : 



[1610. CHAMPLAIN'S DESCRIPTION OF THE WHALE FISHERY IN NEW FRANCE, CHAPTER xn.] 



" It has seemed to me not to be inappropriate to give here a short description 

 of the whale fishery, as many persons have never seen it and believe that they are 

 taken by shooting with guns, while there are liars so unblushing that they affirm 

 this to those who know nothing of it. From these false accounts many persons have 

 obstinately disputed this with me. 



" Those then who are most skilful at this fishery are the Basques, who in order 

 to prosecute it, place their vessels in a safe harbor, near where they judge there are 

 numbers of whales, and equip many boats filled with good men and lines, which are 

 small ropes made of the best hemp obtainable, having a length of at least 150 

 fathoms ; and have a great many lances of the length of a half-pike, which have the 

 iron six inches broad, of others a foot and a half or two feet long, very sharp. 

 They have in each boat a harpooner, who is a man of the most agile and skilful 

 among them, and draws the most pay after the masters, inasmuch as it is the most 

 hazardous position. The boat above mentioned being outside the harbor, they look 

 in all directions in order that they may if possible see and discover a whale feeding 

 off one shore or the other ; and not seeing any, they return to land and ascend the 

 highest promontory they find, for the purpose of seeing as far as possible, and there 

 they station a man as a sentinel, who seeing a whale, which they discover as much 

 by its size as by the water which it spouts out of its blowholes, which is more than 



1 LESCARBOT, Nova Francia, Or the Description of that part of New France which is one 

 continent with Virginia, &c. Trans, by P. E. London, 1609, pp. 268-269. 



