70 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



court of admiralty to be held to adjudicate on a drift- whale found floating near 

 Brewster's [Mass.], and towed ashore in August." ' 



" By the inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard, in 1702-3, there appear to have 

 been several whales killed. The following entry occurs under that date in the 

 court records: 'The marks of the [3] whales killed by John Butler and Thomas 

 Lathrop. . . . These whales were all killed about the middle of February last past; 

 all great whales, betwixt six and seven and eight foot bone, which are all gone 

 from us.' " 8 



"In the News-Letter [Boston] of August 8, 1765, is the following statement: 

 'Tuesday one of the sloops which has been on the Whaling Business returned 

 here. We hear that the vessels employed in the Whale Fishery from this and the 

 neighboring Maritime Towns, amounting to near 100 Sail, have been very success- 

 ful this Season in the Gulph of St. Lawrence and Streights of Belle isle; having, 

 'tis said, already made upwards of 9,000 Barrels of Oil.' " 3 



On p. 47, Starbuck quotes the proclamation of Gov. Hugh Palliser, dated 

 August 1, 1766, a part of which is as follows: 



" Whereas great Numbers of the Whaling Crews arriving from the Plantations 

 on the Coast of Labradore early in the Spring considering it as a lawless Country 

 are guilty of all Sorts of Outrages before the arrival of the King's Ships. . . . For 

 preventing these Practices in future Notice is hereby given That the King's Officers 

 stationed in those Parts, are authorized and strictly directed, to apprehend all such 

 Offenders within this Government. . . . This Notification is to be put in the 

 Harbours in Labradore, within my Government, and through the Favour of His 

 Excellency Governour Bernard, Copies thereof will be put up in the Ports within 

 the Province of Massachusetts, where the Whalers mostly belong, for their In- 

 formation before the next Fishing Season." 



On p. 49, the following remarks are made : 



"It was currently reported in the colonies, during the early part of 1767, that 

 the irksome restrictions upon whaling were to be entirely removed ; petitions to 

 that effect had been presented to the home government, and a favorable result was 

 hoped for, and early in 1768 the straits of Davis and Belle Isle were again vexed 

 by the keels of our [American] fishermen, as many as 50 or 60 anchoring in Canso 

 Harbor in April of that year, a few of them bound for the former locality, but the 

 majority of them cruising in the vicinity of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and New- 

 foundland. (From a log-book kept by Isaiah Eldredge, of the Sloop Tyrall, of 

 Dartmouth, which sailed April 25, 1768, for the straits of Belle Isle. She cleared 

 from Nantucket, as Dartmouth was not then a port of entry. On Friday, April 

 29, she was at anchor in Canso Harbor ; with 50 or 60 other whalemen. Satur- 

 day, May 7, left Crow Harbor and at night anchored in Man-of-War Cove, Canso 

 Gut, ' with about 60 sail of wailmen.' The vessels were continually beset with ice 

 and on the 23d of May they cleared their decks of snow, which was 'almost over 

 shoes deep.' They killed their first whale on the 22d of July. The larger num- 

 ber of vessels were spoken in pairs, which was the usual manner of cruising. The 

 sloop returned to Dartmouth on the 5th of November)." 



1 STARBUCK, p. 35. ' Ibid., pp. 35-36. ' Ibid., pp. 44-45. 



