AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 577 



Mr. Fisher said there could be no doubt that a large surface moderately 

 heated, was far better for health, comfort and safety, than a small surface 

 highly heated, as in hot air heating. Ventilation is perfectly practicable 

 with the system of heating described, and heat can be conveyed by means 

 of steam to any reasonable distance. Jacob Perkins said he could heat an 

 entire parish in 'this way, Mr. Fisher had no doubt that a whole block 

 could be heated by one boiler. Heating by steam was introduced into the 

 British Museum in consequence of the injury and danger incurred by using 

 hot air. Valuable works of art would be soon destroyed had hot air been 

 employed. 



Mr. Howe then introduced some very extraordinary specimens of leather 

 made from the skin of the white whale, or the white porpoise, as it is called 

 by the French Canadians. He referred to the extreme strength and elas- 

 ticity of the leather, and read a paper from Mr. Tetu, who carries on the 

 fisheries of this animal in Canada, the substance of which we give below. 



THE WHITE WHALE OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. 



I propose, in this paper, to present a few facts in relation to the white 

 whale of the St. Lawrence, one of which is now on exhibition in New York. 

 In addition to this expose, I will give cheerfully any verbal explanation 

 that may prove of interest to the scientific and industrial world. 



The name given to this fish by the French Canadians is that of the white 

 porpoise, but it is denominated the white whale in all works of natural 

 history that I have consulted. 



We find the white whale in the St. Lawrence river, opposite the village 

 of St. Roch situated nearly sixty miles below Quebec, and as far down aa 

 Fathei-'s point, a distance of about two hundred miles, It is also found in 

 immense quantities in the rivers emptying into Hudson's Bay. 



This cetaceous animal became, soon after the discovery of Canada, an 

 article of commerce which entitled the first colonists who engaged in catch- 

 ing it, to a special protection on the part of the French government. 



In 1707 there were no less than eight companies established at different 

 points of the river, for carrying on this business, whom the Intendants pro- 

 tected by their edicts and ordinances. 



The oil of the white whale was then worth only a franc a gallon ; its 

 skin was somehow considered of little value, but the facility with which it 

 was taken was so great, that the quantity alone sufficed to make it sought 

 after, and to render the pursuit profitable to those engaged in it, among 

 whom a company of six farmers, at River Quelle point, was particularly 

 distinguished. 



During the year 1710 this company took 800 ; some years later it killed 

 thousands, but the numbers gradually diminished every year, and whether 

 from the more frequent navigation of the river proving a cause of alarm to 

 this valuable fish, or from some of those hidden causes which the depths of 

 the ocean vail from us, they ceased to live together in large shoals, and 

 dispersed into all parts of the river. It cannot, however, be said that they 

 [Am. Inst.] 37 



