502 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



the longest plates of whalebone, which are black and measure 

 up to 7 feet or slightly more in length. There is no dorsal fin, 

 and the throat is without grooves. The fore limb is nearly 

 squarish in outline. Lower lip very deep, the lower jaw bones 

 much bowed outward. Fingers of the hand five. Color black, 

 often with a certain amount of white on the lower surface. 

 Length of the North Atlantic right whale seldom exceeds 50 

 feet over all; the longest measurement, from tip of snout to 

 notch of flukes, in five southern right whales was 15.23 meters 

 (about 49.5 feet) ; longest whalebone plate, 2.05 meters. 



On account of its relatively slow movements and its predi- 

 lection for coastal waters, this whale had since early times been 

 the chief object of pursuit with simple hand apparatus in boats 

 putting out from shore. This was probably the whale taken 

 by the Norwegians off the Tromso coast as early at least as the 

 ninth century; hence "the history of whaling naturally begins 

 with this species, which was hunted by the Basque inhabitants 

 of the Biscay coasts of France and Spain. The industry was 

 important as early as the twelfth century, as is shown by docu- 

 mentary evidence . . . The Biscay Whale is a migratory 

 animal, and it formerly appeared close inshore on the Basque 

 coasts during the winter and early spring months . . . 

 Even this limited hunting seems to have produced the effect 

 of driving the whales from the coast, a conclusion which is 

 supported by the fact that the Basque sailors found it necessary 

 to undertake long voyages, in pursuit of whales, about the 

 middle of the 17th century, or even earlier. " As early as the 

 fifteenth century these people had reached the Newfoundland 

 waters. After 1800 the species was nearly exterminated in 

 European seas. Meanwhile the Pilgrims, on reaching New 

 England in 1620, found right whales in abundance, and it 

 seems likely that, as on the European coast, the animals ar- 

 rived early in autumn and passed southward to the Carolina 

 coasts in part, and in part wintered northward to Massachu- 

 setts Bay. In spring came a general northward movement to 

 the seas about southern Greenland and Iceland for the summer. 

 The New Englanders pursued these whales eagerly for over a 

 century, when, as the numbers declined and voyages were 

 made to sea, the industry of shore whaling was gradually given 

 up, "terminating about 1700 on the European side of the At- 

 lantic and about 1800 on the American side. [The right 



