1881.] THE BASaUE PROVINCES OF SPAIN. 975 



formerly the " Qasa de Ballenas," or house where business connected 

 with the whale-fishery was transacted. At Gijon there is also a 

 " Casa de Ballenas,^' and a street called Whale-lane. These names, 

 with the coats of arms and traditions, are all relics of the old whalinn- 

 days. At San Sebastian, too, there are enormous tinajas, or 

 earthenware jars, in which the oil was stored. 



It was at one time supposed that the Balcena biscayensis had 

 become quite extinct ; but this is certainly not the case. Whales 

 are seen on the Cantabrian coast at intervals of about ten years. In 

 1844 a whale was seen off Zarauz. Boats went out, and it was hit ; 

 but it broke the lines, and got away with two harpoons and three 

 lances in its body, after having towed the boats for six hours. On 

 the 25th of July 1850, early in the morning, a whale appeared off 

 Guetaria. Boats quickly pursued it ; but the harponeer missed his 

 aim, and the whale went off, heading N.W. In January 1854 a 

 whale and her two young entered the bay of San Sebastian. One of 

 the young whales was singled out for attack ; but tlie mother made 

 desperate efforts to defend it, and once broke the line. Eventually the 

 mother and one calf escaped, while the other was secured. Of 

 course, with proper boats and apparatus, and if tbe fishermen had 

 had a little of their ancestor's experience, all three would have been 

 caught. It was the skeleton of this young whale that Professor 

 Eschricht purchased at Pampluna. It is now at Copenhagen. 



While I was at Gijon, in the Astunas, I was told by an old 

 fisherman that a whale had been caught, about twenty years ago, 

 by the villagers near the lighthouse on Punta de Peiias. The story 

 was not believed by merchants and otiiers of whom I made inquiries ; 

 so I thought it best to investigate the matter myself. I therefore 

 went westward to the little fishing-village of Luanco, and next day 

 proceeded on foot across a wild mountainous country to the light- 

 house of Punta de Penas — a distance of IQ miles there and back. 

 There, in the courtyard of the lighthouse was a whale's jaw-bone ; 

 and the man in charge corroborated the story. But he added the 

 curious statement that the whale was dead and half flensed, driftino- 

 in under the land, when the villagers first saw it and went out in 

 their boats to tow it on shore. I also found parts of the rib-bones 

 in the granary of a farm-house at Viodo, a hamlet near the light- 

 house. 



The last whale of which I obtained intelligence was sighted be- 

 tween Guetaria and Zarauz on the 11th of February 1878. Many 

 boats went out from those two places, and one boat from Orio. The 

 first harpoon that kept fast was thrown by a smart youno- sailor of 

 Guetaria, the countryman of Sebastian del Cano, the first circum- 

 navigator of the globe. He is now in the Spanish navy. Even- 

 tually the whale was killed and towed on shore. No one derived 

 any benefit, because there was a law-suit tried at Azpeitia. It 

 appears that the harpoon was of Guetaria, but that the line belono-ed 

 to Zarauz. Meanwhile the whale became unpleasant and had* to 

 be blown up. The authorities of San Sebastian, however, throuo-h 

 the intervention of Don Nicolas Soraluce, secured the bones ; and the 



