THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 37 



shape, one being call'cl a Bottle-Nosed Whale, the other a Shovel-Nose [shark ?], 

 which is as different as a Salmon from a Sturgeon. 



" There is another sort of these Whales, or great Fish, though not common. I 

 never knew of above one of that sort, found on the Coast of North Carolina, and 

 he was contrary, in Shape, to all others ever found before him, being sixty Foot in 

 Length, and not above three or four Foot Diameter [Finback ?]." 1 



Lawson includes, without comment, Acosta's story, published more than a 

 century before, of the Florida Indians killing whales by driving plugs into their 

 blowholes. 



In Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, the first edition of which was pub- 

 lished in 1731-33, we read only that "whales of different species are sometimes 

 cast on shore, as are Grampus's, in storms and hurricanes." 3 



Brickell, in 1737, in his Natural History of North Carolina, repeats parts 

 of Lawson (1709) word for word, with some unimportant additions of his own. 3 



In 1725 we meet with the first original account of the whales of New England 

 by an American colonist. This contribution, entitled "An Essay upon the Natural 

 History of Whales," 4 was written by Paul Dudley, Chief-Justice of Massachusetts, 

 who was at once a jurist, a theologian, and a naturalist. He probably had little 

 acquaintance with the subject from his own observation, and took his informa- 

 tion at second or even at third hand. He tells us that he was informed as 

 regards ambergris by a Mr. Atkins of Boston, a practical whaler, " one of the first 

 that went out a fishing for the Sperma Ceti whales," and that on the other topics 

 he had the assistance of Mr. J. Coffin of Nantucket and Rev. Mr. Greenleafe of 

 Yarmouth. 



Dudley's essay, on account of the amount of original and generally accurate 

 information it contains, deserves to take rank with those of Martens, Sibbald, 

 Scoresby, and Zorgdrager. It is not a systematic treatise, but the several kinds of 

 whales occurring on the New England coast are named and briefly described, with 

 notes on their habits, reproduction, and other matters. The whales mentioned 

 are: (1) "The Right, or Whalebone Whale" ; (2) "The Scrag Whale" ; (3) "The 

 Finback Whale ; " (4) " The Bunch, or Humpback Whale " ; (5) " The Sperma Ceti 

 Whale." 



All of these are recognizable and have been assigned to their proper places 

 generically, except the "Scrag" whale, which is, and always has been, a stumbling- 

 block to cetology. It was accepted, without criticism, as a separate species by 

 Klein, Anderson, and other writers. In 1869, Nathaniel E. Atwood, a practical 

 fisherman, and a well educated and observant man, who resided for many years at 

 Provincetown, Mass., stated that the whalers there recognized a "Scrag" whale, 

 but regarded it as the young of the Right whale. 5 Scammon remarks: "Our 



1 Op. cit., pp. 153-154. Lawson was Surveyor-General of North Carolina. 



" This is from the edition of 1743, vol. 2, p. xxxii, which, however, appears not to differ from 

 the original edition. 



3 BRICKELL, J., The Natural History of North Carolina, 1737, pp. 215-226. 



' Philos. Trans , 33, No. 387, Mch. and Apr., 1725, pp. 256-269. 



5 ALLEN, J. A., Catalogue of the Mammals of Massachusetts. Bull, Mus. Comp. Zool., i, No. 8, 

 1869, p. 203. 



