b REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



neighboring tribes as a present of peculiar value.* Scamrnon says :t " It 

 has been stated by several writers that the American colonists followed 

 up the Indian mode of capturing tbe whale, by first striking it with a 

 harpoon having a log of wood attached to it by a line, even as late as 

 the commencement of the Sperm Whale fishery." It is quoted that the 

 Hon. Paul Dudley stated: "Our people formerly used to kill the whale 

 near the shore, but now they go off to sea in sloops and whale-boats. 

 Sometimes the whale is killed by a single stroke, and yet at other times 

 she will hold the whalemen in play near half a day together, with their 

 lances ; and sometimes they will get away after they have been lanced and 

 spouted thick blood, with irons in them, and drags (droges) fastened to 

 them, which are thick boards about fourteen inches square." * * * 

 " We are of the opinion, however, that the colonial whalers did not follow 

 the Indian mode of whale-fishing ; for it is well known that the British 

 whalers, as early as 1670, used the line attached to the boat, and, so far 

 as the drags or ' droges' are concerned, they are used at the present day 

 in cases of emergency.! 



As early as 1030, Massachusetts, with an eye to the importance of the 

 fisheries, passed an act to encourage them. By its provisions all vessels 

 employed in taking or transporting fish were exempted from all duties 

 and taxes for the term of seven years, and all fishermen were exempted 

 from military service during the fishing season. As important as the 

 pursuit of whaling seemed to have been considered by the first settlers, 

 many years seem to have elapsed before it was followed as a business, 

 though probably something was attempted in that direction prior to 

 any recorded accouut that we have. The subject of drift- whales ap- 

 pears to have attracted considerable importance both in the Plymouth 

 and the Massachusetts Bay colonies. The colonial government claimed 

 a portion, a portion was allowed to the town, and the finder, if no other 



* Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, p. 65. Amoug tbe Montauk Indians the most savory sacra- 

 fice to their deity was the tail or fin of the whale. (Hedge's Address, p. 35.) The 

 Greenlander's idea of Heaven, according to Father Hennepin, was a place where there 

 would be an immense cauldron continually hoiling, and each could take as much seal 

 blubber, ready cooked, as he wanted. 



t Marine Mammalia and Americau Whale Fishery, p. 204, note. 



tit would appear from Purchas' account tbat lines were used to attach the boat to 

 the whale as early as 1613. He writes : " I might here recreate your wearied eyes with 

 a hunting spectacle of the greatest chase which nature yieldeth ; I mean tbe killing of 

 a whale. When they espy him on the top of the water (which he is forced to for to 

 take breath), they row toward him in a shallop, in which the harponeer stands ready 

 with both his bauds to dart his harping iron, to which is fastened a line of such length 

 that, the tvhale (which suddenly feeling himself hurl, sinketh to the bottom,) may carry it down 

 with him, being before fitted that the shallop) be not tlertivith endangered; coming up again, 

 they strike him with lances made for that purpose, about twelve feet long, the iron 

 eight thereof, and the blade eighteen inches — the harping iron principally serving to fasten 

 him to the shallop, and thus they hold him in such pursuit, till after streams of water, 

 and next of blood, cast up into the air and water, (as angry with both elements, which 

 have brought thither such weak hands for his destruction,) he at length yieldeth up 

 his slain carcass as meed to the conquerors.''* 



