SCANDINAVIAN CETACEA. 307 



large to have belonged to any species of the preceding genera. It is not known where it was 

 found, but probably in some locality near the Baltic. More bones of this whale have probably 

 been found in Sweden, of which no note has as yet been taken. 



Tliis whale has, as is well known, been the object of the whale-fisheries that for centuries have 

 been carried on with so great profit. The Basques, and probably even the French in the vicinity 

 of the Bay of Biscay, had already before the twelfth century^ occupied themselves with whale- 

 fisheries, and finally extended them to Newfoundland, and perhaps to South Greenland. Although 

 they principally devoted their attention to catching the Nordcaper in the Northern Atlantic, it is 

 not impossible that at Greenland they also caught the Greenland whale. The Dutch and English 

 commenced, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to devote their attention to whaling, 

 having been instructed by the Basques ; the consequence of this was that the latter were 

 finally excluded from the pursuit. After the Dutch in the sixteenth, and Hudson in the seventeenth 

 century, had discovered Spitzbergen, and the abundance of whales in that vicinity, the attention 

 of the whalers was soon drawn to these regions, and the fisheries there were very profitable in the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and sometimes in the nineteenth.^ The vessels of other 

 nations, Russian, French, Danish and Norwegian, Swedish, and those from Hamburg and Bremen, 

 participated in this. The consequence was that the whales were almost exterminated in the seas 

 of Spitzbergen, and the whalers commenced, as early as the first part of the eighteenth century, 

 to leave this sea for that of Greenland and Davis Strait. Since the whale-fishery there has 

 gradually decreased, it is now carried on by only a small number of vessels, mostly English and 

 American, but it is not profitable, unless they succeed in finding places that have never before 

 been visited. The whale-fisheries of the Danish colonies in Greenland have, according to Rink,^ 

 decreased considerably since 1827. Six whales were caught during 1849-51, none in the three 

 succeeding years, and only three during 1855-56. The Greenland whale is caught for its blubber 

 and baleen. The former forms a layer some 8" — 20" thick (varying in the different parts of 

 the body), which surrounds the body under the skin. It amounts, according to Melchior, in a 

 large whale, from 140 to 170 barrels. The weight of the whalebone in such a whale is, according 

 to Scoresby, sometimes 1] ton. It is generally shy and timid, and seldom makes resistance 

 when attacked. When struck by the harpoon it generally rushes towards the bottom, and keeps 

 underwater as long as it can— generally thirty minutes, sometimes an hour and a half (Scoresby) — 

 and is, when it returns to the surface of the water, very much weakened, the more so the longer it 

 has been under water. It then receives one or more harpoons, rushes down again, but comes up 

 in a few minutes. It is then pierced with lances, and efforts are made to hit the heart. When 

 death approaches, it generally spouts blood from the blowers, colouring the water with blood for 

 some distance. The belly side turns up as soon as the whale is dead, and it is then speedily 

 towed to the vessel which is near at hand, and made fast to its side ; after the blubber and baleen 

 have been taken from it the remainder of the body is let go to the bottom. The great difiiculties 

 in securing and preparing the skeleton on such occasions, unless there has been an opportunity 



^ Lacépéde, ' Hist. Nat. des Cétacées,' pp. 75 and 76. Scoresby, ' An Account of the Arctic 

 Regions,' &c., contains a detailed history. F. Cuvier, ' Hist. Nat. des Cétacées,' p. 43. 



• ^ Scoresby caught several whales near Spitzbergen in the earlier part of this century. He 

 took part in catching 123 whales there during a period of eight years. 

 ^ 'Gronland, Geographsk og Statistisk Beskrevet,' 1 Bd., p. 207. 



