523 A. E. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. | ni 
Large sharks have occasionally been taken, outside the reefs, for 
their liver oil, from early times down to the present year. The oil 
was used for lamp-oil, in early times, but is now highly prized as a 
lubricant. The shark most commonly taken for their oil is called by 
the fisherman the ‘nurse shark,” but it is probably not the true 
northern nurse-shark.* It may be the ‘“ Cat-shark” or “Gata,” of 
which small specimens are not uncommon. 
d.— Silk, Castor Oil, Olive Oil, etc. 
In the early history of the Bermudas, many attempts were made 
to cultivate crops that did not prove successful, for various reasons, 
but perhaps oftener for the want of a market than for any other 
cause. Attempts were made very early to raise silk worms, and 
large numbers of Mulberry trees were planted for this use, about 
1630, but the enterprise came to nothing. Governor Reid, about 
1839, again tried to introduce silk raising, but without success. 
Apparently the native laborers are not equal to the constant and 
faithful care required for this industry. Some silk worms have been 
raised by individuals in recent years. 
About 1630, when the price of tobacco had become so low as to be 
unprofitable, the Company ordered the planting of the Castor-oil 
plant for its oil, and sent out seed for the purpose. They were 
planted in 1631-34 in large quantities. 
That the cultivation of the castor-oil plant was very successful is 
proved by the following extract from a letter of Governor Roger 
Wood, to the Company, in 1634 :— 
““ Now for your oyle wee have planted and gathered so much seed 
as it may be lykened to Josephs provision for corne in Egypt, for wee 
have no place to lay it in, and now we have it wee know not what to 
doe with it, and before I will put a finger to a presse to make this 
oyle for 12d the gallon I protest I will plucke up all my trees and 
burne them. I like well of yor price proposed to sell a bushell as 
they be gathered from the Trees, the long stalkes takes off the heape 
of 12d the bushell, and this is so little that men can not live of lesse; 
but lett those oyle marchants make that good and I will deliver them 
50,000 bushells of seed from the Inhabitants of these Islands yearely, 
* During the time when whales were often taken, large sharks would follow 
the dead whales that were towed ashore, being attracted by the blood, and some- 
times they damaged the whales considerably. As an offset, the fishermen used 
to take the denuded carcasses of the whales outside the reefs and use them for 
baiting the sharks, spearing those that came around the bait. 
