44 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



" The spermaceti whale, found all over the world, and of all sizes ; the longest 

 are sixty feet, and yield about 100 barrels of oil. 



"The hump-backs, on the coast of Newfoundland, from forty to seventy feet 

 in length. 



"The finn-back, an American whale, never killed, as being too swift. 



" The sulphur-bottom, river St. Laurence, ninety feet long ; they are but 

 seldom killed, as being extremely swift. 



" The grampus, thirty feet long, never killed on the same account. 



" The killer or thrasher, about thirty feet ; they often kill the other whales, 

 with which they are at perpetual war. 



" The black fish whale, twenty feet, yields from eight to ten barrels. 



"The porpoise, weighing about 160 pounds." 



In this same year, 1782, was published Duhamel's great Traite General des 

 Peches. He also alludes to the occurrence of Bowheads in the temperate waters 

 of Canada. 



" I know that some small whales [Nordcapers] are taken in Iceland, and that 

 some large ones [Bowheads] are found sometimes accidentally in the more temper- 

 ate Provinces, especially in Canada, where the large whales [Bowheads] are for the 

 most part wounded by harpoons ; some even are dead, which leads one to believe 

 that they are whales which, having been chased and wounded in the northern 

 parts, have left their home to retire into other quarters." 1 



What led Duhamel to make this explanation is not evident, but if the Bow- 

 head was really fished for in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it seems unlikely that 

 wounded and dead whales would be the object of pursuit. Referring to the causes 

 which induced the English to withdraw from the Greenland fishery, Duhamel 

 remarks : 



" Others pretend that the Dutch having succeeded in carrying on the fishery 

 [at Greenland] with more economy than the English, the latter have found it more 

 convenient and advantageous to cany on the fishery on the coasts of New England, 

 New York, and Carolina, where they maintain many vessels, which carry the pro- 

 duct of their fishery to England. The whales that are taken in these places are 

 smaller than those found in the ice of the north ; nevertheless, in proportion to 

 their size, they yield oil quite abundantly." 8 



On page 28 he gives Acosta's story of the Florida Indians, .without referring to 

 the former, but remarks : " The truth of this which we have said has been attested 

 by many ocular witnesses, among others, by many officers, who have been ready to 

 establish these facts." This is the first time since 1590, I believe, that any one 

 has been willing to vouch for the truth of Acosta's story. 



A writer of this period who labored earnestly, and with some measure of suc- 

 cess, to abate the confusion existing in cetology, was the Abbe Bonnaterre, whose 

 Tableau Encyclopedique was published as a supplement to the Encyclopaedia 



1 DUHAMEL, Traite" Ge'ne'ral des Peches, 4, p. 10. 

 * Op. tit., 4, p. 28. 



