22 ESCHRICHT AND REINHARDT 



that whale properly so called, also know another and larger one, with whalebone twelve feet in 

 length, and found in the River St. Lawrence. That in this passage he is speaking of the Green- 

 land whale is evident enough ; yet, if this statement stood alone and by itself, he might be 

 supposed to be mistaken as to the locality, but we can hardly doubt it now, corroborated as it is 

 by other and much older statements given in Purchas' well-known work, his ' Pilgrimes,' to which 

 we shall here direct the attention of our readers. The first statement is to be found in the instruc- 

 tions^ given by the Enghsh Muscovy Company to Thomas Edge, when, in 1611, he was sent on 

 the first whahng expedition which, after the discovery of Spitzbergen, departed for that island. In 

 these instructions a review of all the difierent sorts of whales, which had been collected from the best 

 sources,^ had been inserted for his information, and in the first two species of whales thus mentioned, 

 namely, "The Bearded Whale" and the " Sarda," we easily recognise two right-whales, and the 

 first, largest and best, is the Greenland whale ; the other, a smaller species, whose whalebone 

 was only six feet long, is most likely the one with which we have become acquainted in the 

 preceding statements. The amount of train oil and whalebone to be got from the Bearded Whale 

 is accurately stated, and thus it is clear that even before the discovery of Spitzbergen this animal 

 must have been well known to the whalers, who used to hunt it as well as the Sarda ; but in 

 this place nothing is stated about the region in which this hunt had formerly taken place. But 

 on this subject we are enlightened by an account of the ten voyages made by Mr. Edge himself 

 to Spitzbergen, in the service of the company mentioned above, written by himself, and printed 

 in the work of Purchas, for in this account we also find a description of the different whales, 

 essentially, indeed, a repetition of the one given in his instructions, in which, however, he has 

 made a few alterations ; thus, he no longer calls the whale first mentioned the bearded whale, 

 but the " Grand Bay" whale, and to the description formerly given he adds the information 

 that it received its name from " Grand Bay, in Nervfomidland, as luivinri tliere been first killed."^ 

 Mr. Edge is likely to have obtained this information from the Biscayan harpooners whom he 

 brought with him at least on his first voyage, and who may certainly be supposed to be 

 trustworthy authorities as to the origin of that name, and to have been perfectly able to decide 

 whether the whale known to them by the appellation the " Grand Bay " was the same which they 

 found again near Spitzbergen. But, moreover, it can also be proved in another way both that 

 the Basques, before they found the way to Spitzbergen, also knew, besides the Sarda, another 

 right-whale, to which they gave the name of the Grand Bay whale, and that this was the same 

 which afterwards was caught near this island. For in the letter, already quoted, which Baffin 

 after his voyage in 1616, wrote to John Wolstenholme, one of those at whose expense the expe- 

 dition had been undertaken, he states expressly that the whales found by him in such great numbers 

 in Whale Sound, Wolstenholme Sound, and other bays, were of that kind loMch the Basques 

 call Grand Bay whales, and which are caught near Greenland (or Spitzbergen), and he adds, that 

 he is sure that he was not mistaken as to what kind of whale it was, having been twice at 

 Spitzbergen, and knowing the whale found there very well.* Finally, before we leave this question 

 of the appearance of the Greenland whale near Newfoundland, we shall add a communication 



^ ' Purchas, Ms Pilgrimes,' part iii (London, 1625), p. 709, 710. 



Loc, cit. — " as we have gathered the same by information from men of excellencie in that business.'" 

 ^ Loc. cit., p. 471. 

 * Purchas, iii, p. 843. 



