316 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXIV, 



drudge or stop-water, a plank of about two feet square, with a stick through 

 its center; to the further end of this stick, is fastened a tow-rope, called the 

 drudge rope, of about fifteen fathom; they lance, after having fastened her 

 by the harpoon, till dead. 



"The New England whalers reckon so many ct. wt. bone, as bone is 

 feet long: for instance, sevenfoot bone gives 700 wt. bone: New England 

 bone scarce ever exceeds nine feet; and 100 barrels of oil is supposed to 

 yield 1000 wt. of bone : whales killed in deep water, if they sink, never rise 

 again ....*' 



Hector St. John, in his account of the island of Nantucket, 1 gives inci- 

 dentally a brief notice of the origin of whaling from that island. He says: 

 "The first proprietors of this island, or rather of this town, began their 

 career of industry with a single whale-boat, with which they went to fish for 

 cod; the small distance from their shores at which they caught it enabled 

 them soon to increase their business, and those early successes, first led them 

 to conceive that they might likewise catch the whales, which hitherto sported 

 undisturbed on their banks. After many trials and several miscarriages, 

 they succeeded; thus they proceeded, step by step; the profits of one suc- 

 cessful enterprise helped them to purchase and prepare better materials 

 for a more extensive one : as they were attended with little costs, their profits 

 grew greater. The south sides of the island from east to west, were divided 

 into four equal parts, and each part assigned to a company of six, which 

 though thus separated, still carried on their business in common. Tn the 

 middle of the distances they erected a mast, provided with a sufficient 

 number of rounds, and near it they built a temporary hut, where five of the 

 associates lived, whilst the sixth from his high station carefully looked 

 toward the sea, in order to observe the spouting of the whales. It may 

 appear strange to you, that so slender a vessel as an American whale-boat, 

 containing six diminutive beings, should dare to pursue and attack, in its 

 native element, the largest and strongest fish that nature hath created. Yet 

 by the exertion of an admirable dexterity, improved by a long practice, in 

 which these people are become superior to any other whalemen ; by knowing 

 the temper of the whale after her first movement, and by many other useful 

 observations ; thev seldom failed to harpoon it, and bring the huge leviathan 

 on the shores. Thus they went on until the profits they made, enabled them 

 to purchase larger vessels, and to pursue them farther, when the whales 

 quitted their coasts;. ..." 



Not only, in early times, were many whales taken along the shores of 

 Xantucket and Martha's Vineyard, but also along the southern shore of 



1 Letters from An American Farmer, ed. of 1782, pp. 153-154. 



