53 OF CETACEOUS FISHES. 



animals conftitutes their principal fubfiftence ; and fhould 

 they be at lall extirpated, or defert the coaft, that mi- 

 ferable people would be in danger of perifhing through 

 want*. 



Before the year 1598, the whale feems never to have 

 been taken on our coafls but when it was accidentally 

 driven a-fliore f . It was then deemed a royal fifh, and 

 the king and queen divided the fpoil between them ; the 

 king afl'erting his right to the head, and her majefly by 

 prerogative entitled to the tai/X- A total revolution ii> 

 the fafhion of eatables, and the great quantity of thefe 

 iifli that are now imported, has rendered this prerogative 

 of royalty of lefs importance, and even ludicrous : for- 

 merly however the whale as well as the porpoife, and dol- 

 phin, was probably a diih ferved at the royal board ; and 

 from its magnitude it muft have held a very refpedlable 

 Nation there. Such dainties continued in vogue fo late- 

 as the reign of Henry VIII. ; for, in a houfehold book 

 of. that prince §, it is ordered, that if a porpoife fliould be 

 too big for a horfe load, allowance fliould be made to the 

 purveyor. Even in the reign of Queen Kli%aheth^ we" 

 find di regions for the drefiing and ferving up of the dol- 

 phin with porpoife fauce; a compclition of vinegar, crumbs 

 of bread, and fugar jj 



The fleih of the whale has always made a part of the 

 food of fome favage nations. The natives of Greenland- 

 as well as the barliarous tribes that inhabit the vicinity 

 of the fouth pole, eat the flefh prepared in various ways, 

 and drink the oil, vrliich is wiih them afirft rate delicacy. 

 The finding of a dead whale is an adventure confideied- 



among 



* Britifli Zoology, CLifs iv. Genus I. 

 + Eritifll Zoology, idem ibidem. 



% Ehckfton, Comm. i. c. 4. § Archxolcgia, Vol. \txs^ 



It Gaij. Opufcula 116. 



