SPITZBERGEN AND GREENLAND. Ill 



I another, with their heads out of the water ; which seemeth 

 very probable, because they cannot keep long under water, 

 and chiefly in such a heat. They say, that they have but 

 two young ones at a time, for they have never found more 

 than two young ones within them. How long they. carry 

 their young is not easily determined; some say they go 

 as long as a cow; but it is very uncertain, he that will be- 

 lieve it may. The sperm of a lolicde, when it is fresh, smells 

 like wheaten flour when it is boiled in water ; when it is still 

 hot it is very white, one may draw it out in threads like hot 

 sealing-wax, glow, or the like; when it groweth cold it turns 

 to a musk-colour and smells strong, and little red worms 

 grow in it. I have try'd several ways to keep this sperm 

 sweet and fresh, but I could never make it like the sperma- 

 cceti which the apothecaries sell in their shops. One may 

 dip of this sperm whole pails full out of the water, for as well 

 this, as that of the sea-Jiorses and seals, swim upon the sea 

 like fat, and we see abundance of it in calm weather, so that 

 it doth make the sea all foul and slimy. I try'd to dry this 

 sperm of a xcliale in the sun, and it look'd like snot, and 

 when the thin slime was dry^d away from it, look'd like unto 

 F'lla metcorica, save only that they are thicker and more 

 heavy. Another parcel I boil'd in sea-water, just as I took 

 it out of the water, until the water was evaporated from it ; 

 then I had some sea-salt and a nasty brown slime. The 

 third parcel I boil'd in fresh water, and afterwards again in 

 sea-water, the longer I kept it afterwards the more it stunk 

 and the harder it grew. The fourth parcel I intended to 

 keep in the salt water with an intention to carry it along 

 with me to Hamburgh, but it dissolved in the water like 

 glow, and the water became foul and stinking, so that I 

 could by no means make it like the sperma-ccBti of the apothe- 

 caries. Where the yard cloth begin it is four-square, con- 

 sisting of many strong sinews ; if you dry them they are as 

 transparent as fish glow ; out of these sinews the seamen 



