THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 43 



Tlie whalebone whales are brought together under the genus J3alcena as 

 follows : Baliena mysticetm [Bowhead], B. pkysalus [Common Finback], B. boops 

 [Humpback], B. rostrata [Little Piked whale], and B. musculus. This last was 

 not known to Fabricius himself, and he remarks regarding it : "A whale known 

 under a Greenlandic name allied to the preceding [B. boops], and rarely seen, which 

 indeed its name indicates. I am perplexed regarding the synonyms of it and the 

 wonderful confusion of them among authors ; and being denied by fate to see one 

 of them, I am able to determine nothing with certainty." 



In 1818 Fabricius gave a further description of the Greenland Humpback, 

 under the name of " Stub-Hval." ' He treats of its name, external characters and 

 coloration, distribution and migrations, food, uses, enemies and parasites, and syn- 

 onymy. The figure which accompanies the article, though interesting, is grossly 

 inaccurate in many particulars. It is quite as good, however, as many others of its 

 time. That it was not made use of by compilers subsequently is somewhat 

 singular. 



An important list of American cetaceans was published in 1782 in a work 

 whose title Letters from an American Farmer -one would hardly expect to find 

 in a bibliography of cetology. 2 The author, Hector St. John de Crevecosur, seems 

 to have had more or less knowledge of the whaling industry from practical experi- 

 ence, and states that he was " well acquainted " with one kind of whale. His list 

 purports to comprise the species known to the people of Nantucket, and reflects 

 an accuracy of knowledge which is remarkable for its time. 



"The river St. Laurence whale [he remarks] which is the only one I am 

 well acquainted with, is seventy-five feet long, sixteen deep, twelve in the length 

 of its bone (which commonly weighs 3000 lb.), twenty in the breadth of their tails, 

 and produces 180 barrels of oil.'"' 



This is, of course, the Bowhead, and its mention in this manner seems to sup- 

 port the assertion made by Thomas Edge more than a century before (1625), that 

 the Bowhead at a still earlier date was taken in the " Grand Bay of Newfoundland " 

 [Strait of Belle Isle]. See page 11. 



De Crevecoeur proceeds : "The following are the names and principal character- 

 istics of the various species of whales known to these people [of Nantucket and 

 Martha's Vineyard] : 



" The River St. Laurence whale, just described. 

 "The disko, or Greenland ditto. 



"The right whale, or seven feet bone, common on the coasts of this country, 

 about sixty feet long. 



'FABRICIUS, O., Zoologiske Bidrag. 2det Bidrag. Om Stub-Hvalen, Balcena Boops. K. 

 Danske Videns. Selsk. Skrivter, 6, 1818, pp. 63-83, i pi. (unnumbered), fig. i. 



1 Letters from an American Farmer describing the British Colonies in North America, London, 

 1782, pp. 167-169. Allen (Bibliog., p. 472), stares that " In the French edition of 1767 \lege 1787], 

 the letter about the whale-fishery is dated ' Nantucket, 17 Octobre, 1772.' " 



'Op. cit., p. 167. 



