THE WHALE AND HIS CAPTORS, 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The mighty whale doth in those harbors lye, 

 Whose oyle the careful merchant deare will buy. 



Old English Poem. 



Primitive Whalemen. Exploits of Old Ochter. 



FROM very early times it is probable that 

 Northwest Indians, Esquimaux, and Nor- 

 wegians were in the habit of capturing whales 

 in their rude way, in order to supply themselves 

 with fat and food. There is a curious tradition 

 extant of one Ochter, a Norwegian, who, as 

 long ago as King Alfred's time, " was one of 

 six that had killed sixty whales in two days, 

 of which some were forty-eight, some fifty 

 yards long." But the Biscayans are believed 

 to have been the first people who prosecuted 

 the whale fishery as a commercial pursuit, so 

 far back as the twelfth century. In the north 

 of Europe and all around the Bay of Biscay 



