48 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



to the same region for whales, and it seems likely 

 that the former may have first heard of the resources 

 of the Grand Banks from the Basques. At any rate, 

 the Basques were essentially whalers, and the 

 Bretons fishers of cod. , 



The Biscayan Whale was hunted to the verge of 

 extinction when, fortunately for its persistence as a 

 species, the Greenland Whale was discovered in 

 Spitsbergen waters in the early years of the seven- 

 teenth century. The Biscayan Whale has never 

 recovered from the effects of its early persecution. 



Similarly the Southern Right Whale, of which the 

 Biscayan Whale is regarded as a variety by many 

 balaenologists, has been hunted to the verge of 

 extinction, and only a miserable remnant of the 

 former enormous schools are now found in its old 

 haunts in southern waters. 



The second great whale fishery was for the Green- 

 land Right Whale, and it originated in Spitsbergen 

 waters. A detailed account of this fishery is given 

 in a subsequent chapter. Originally a bay fishery 

 in Spitsbergen waters, it soon became an open sea 

 fishery, and even as early as the commencement of 

 the eighteenth century the whalers were compelled 

 to go as far as Davis Strait to make satisfactory 

 captures. This second period, i.e., the real 

 Greenland fishery (as distinguished from the first 

 " Greenland," really a Spitsbergen fishery) lasted, 

 like its predecessor, for nearly a century, and was 

 followed by the third and last hunt for the Green- 

 land Right Whale, that of the Americans in the 



