118 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



next towed ashore to the cookeries, where it is 

 boiled (see p. 80). The fins are then severed from 

 one another with axes, cleaned, and packed in 

 bundles of fifties. 



This description of Edge's applies to the period 

 of the bay fishery, when the whales were abundant 

 close to the shore. At this time whales were 

 present in enormous numbers in Spitsbergen waters. 

 They arrived oh the west coasts and in the west 

 bays of Spitsbergen in the early summer, travelling 

 eastward. They entered the bays in large schools, 

 staying a considerable time, until the excessive 

 hunting drove them out into the open sea, where 

 the chase and capture were far more difficult than 

 in the landlocked and smooth waters of the bays. 



Segersz, who wintered on Spitsbergen in 1633- 

 34, says that the whales deserted the bays on the 

 2;th October, 1633, returning on the 27th April, 

 I634- 1 



1 Segersz, Jacob, van Brugge. Journael of Dagh Register, 

 gehouden by Seven Matroosen, In haer Overwinteren op Spits- 

 bergen in Maurits-Bay Gelegen in Groenlandt A zedert het 

 vertreck van de Visschery-Schepen de Geoctroyeerde Noordtsche 

 Compagnie, in Nederlandt, zijnde den 30 Augusty, 1633, tot de 

 wederkomste der voosz. Schepen, den 27 May, Anno 1634. 

 Beschreven door den Bevel-hebber Jacob Segersz, van der Brugge. 

 Amsterdam, 1634. Eng. Trans. Hakl. Soc., " Early Dutch and 

 English Voyages to Spitsbergen," 1904. 



