THE WHALEBONE WHALES OP THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 29 



Coast. I have myself killed many of them. Their Females have abundance of 

 Milk, which their young ones suck out of the Teats, that grow by their Navell. 

 They have no Teeth, but feed on Mosse, growing on the Rocks at the bottom 

 during these three Moneths, and at no other season of the Year. When that is 

 consumed and gone, the Whales go away also. These we kill for their Oyl. But 

 here have been Sperma- Ceti -Whales driven upon the shore, which Sperma (as 

 they call it) lies all over the Body of those Whales. These have divers Teeth, 

 which may be about as big as a Man's wrist; and I hope by the next opportunity 

 to send you one of them. I have been at the -Bahama-lslauds, and there have 

 been found of this same sort of Whales dead on the shore, with /Sperma all over 

 their Bodies. Myself with about 20 more have agreed to try, whether we can 

 master and kill them, for I could never hear of any of that sort, that were kill'd 

 by any man ; such is their fierceness and swiftness. One such Whale would be 

 worth many hundred pounds. They are very strong, and inlay'd with sinews all 

 over their Body, which may be drawn out thirty fathom long." l 



There are various statements regarding this fishery in the colonial records of 

 the Bermudas, a large body of which was published in convenient form by Sir J. 

 H. Lefroy in 1879. 2 These include the papers of Norwood and Stafford already 

 quoted, but are chiefly orders of the proprietors of the islands to the successive 

 governors concerning the regulation of the fishery, reports of the governors to the 

 proprietors, and various proclamations and court decisions relating to the conduct 

 of the industry. In these papers references are occasionally made to the seasons 

 in which the whales appear at the islands, and some other allusions to their habits, 

 but very little is said regarding the whales themselves. 



While many complaints were made by the proprietors in London that whale 

 oil was not sent them as it should have been, whalebone is seldom referred to. 

 It is usually mentioned as something which might be expected to form a valuable 

 product of the industry, but never as a product actually in hand. From this it 

 would appear that to the close of the 17th century at least, the Right whale 

 was not taken at the islands, for it is not probable that the valuable whalebone of 

 that species would have been ignored. 



We hear nothing of the Bermuda Hump back fishery again for a very long 

 time. Mr. J. Matthew Jones, of Nova Scotia, stated in 1884, that it was "prose- 

 cuted by the islanders with more or less success from the earliest times until the 

 present." 3 He seems to be of the opinion, however, that the Right whale was the 

 species sought for, but there is very good reason to believe that the statements of 

 Norwood and Stafford, in 1 667 and 1668, relate to the same whale as that mentioned 

 in the anonymous accounts of 1665, and the latter was undoubtedly the Hump- 

 back. Later, the Right whale may have been captured, as it was on the coast 

 of New England, and it is possible that at a comparatively early date attention 



1 STAFFORD, RICHARD, An Extract of a Letter, written to the Publisher from the Bermudas by 

 Mr. Richard Stafford ; concerning the Tydes there, as also whales, Sperma Ceti, (etc.). Bermuda, 

 July 16, 1668. Philos. Trans., 3, No. 40, 1668, pp. 792-794. 



1 LEFROY, J. H., Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers 

 Islands, 1511-1687. 2 vols., London, 1877-79. 



' Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 25, 1884, p. 148. 



