ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 19 



northern part of the Atlantic, which in single cases may be found straying as far as Davis Strait, 

 they may be obtained from old memoirs relating to the whale-fishery of the Danes in Greenland. 

 Tn the abridged statement already quoted (p. 6) of a manuscript jom-naP which Jorgen Frederick 

 Egede, a grandson of Greenland's apostle, Hans Egede, kept during the years 1780 to 1785, 

 containing different statements relative to the whale-fishery/ established by him in the Em-opean 

 fashion near Holsteinsborg, we find the following passage about a whale caught on the 23rd of 

 March, 1782 : 



" Denne var en liden men dog gammel Eisk ; Hovedet forskjelligt fra andre Barde-Hvalers, 

 havde kun 5 Eods længste Barder og 16 — 20 Eade hvid Spæk. Grenlænderne kaldte den en 

 Osterboygds Eisk." 



(This was a small, yet an old fish, the head different from that of other whalebone-whales ; 

 had its longest whalebone only of five feet length, and sixteen or twenty casks of white blubber. 

 It was called by the Greenlanders an east-coast whale.) 



Such is the short statement found in the journal. We have, however, a more particular 

 account of this case in some manuscript memoirs about a series of attempts, not very successful, 

 made by the Danish Government, between the years 1775 and 1783, to carry on the whale-fishery 

 along the west coast of Greenland by means of vessels wintering there. In some notes added to 

 these memoirs, which, according to the authority of the late Dr. Pingel (certainly quite unexcep- 

 tionable on this head), were written by the above-mentioned J. F. Egede's uncle. Bishop Paul 

 Egede, and which, if such be the case, have not, indeed, like the passage quoted above, come to 

 us from an [^eye-witness,^ but certainly from one who may be supposed to have been well informed ; 

 in these notes we find the following statement : 



"Pontoppidan anforer udi hans Efterretninger om Hval- og Robbefangsten Pag. 56, at der 

 udi Strat Davids gives ligesaa vel smaae og ulige Hvaler, som udi Spidsbergen. Det kan vel 

 ikke nægtes, at der fanges smaae Hvaler i Strat Davids, men disse ere Unger af den' store 

 Bardehval, og ikke en særskilt Sort for sig selv. Vel sandt, at der om Vinteren 1782 blev 

 fanget en Hval paa en 10 — 12 Cordeler Spæk og med 5 Eods længste Barder, men denne var 

 den anden, som i 70 Aar var bleven fanget i Strat David og af Gronlænderne kaldtes en 

 Osterboygds Hval ; var og i Skabning forskjellig fra den rette og almindelige Hval, da den 

 havde som en Pukkel bag i Nakken ; dens Skind eller rettere Sværd, paa gronlandsk Mattak 

 kaldet, var blaaeagtig, finere og tykkere end de rette Hvalers, der ere ganske sorte og hvide 

 under Bugen. Barderne vare efter deres Længde langt tykkere end den almindelige Strat 

 Davidske Bardehvals, og kunde man af alle Dele see, at det var en gammel Hval, dog var dens 

 Spæk finere og ei saa senerigt som en almindelig fuldvoxen Bardehvals." 



■^ As we have stated already, we are indebted to the late Dr. Pingel, member of the Danish 

 Eoyal Society, for the loan of this journal, as also for another and not unimportant document, which 

 will be mentioned afterwards. 



^ Formerly the Greenlanders' national method of fishing was adopted in the Danish 

 factories. Harpoons to which a sealskin, inflated like a bladder, had been fastened by means of a 

 thong, were employed, which the whale was forced to draw with it in its downward course to the 

 bottom of the sea after having been harpooned. 



^ Bishop Paul Egede arrived in Denmark, from Greenland, in the year 1740, and from that time 

 until his death (1789) he lived at Copenhagen. 



