278 A. H. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 690 
ive 
taken recently, though that may be because only the particularly 
large ones were then thought worthy of record. 
Mayor Hayward, of St. George’s, tells me that he remembers that 
when a child he was permitted to stand on the back of one that had 
been captured and brought inshore, which was 80 feet long and 
was said to have been the largest ever taken here. Mr. Hayward, 
of St. David’s Island, probably refers to the same one, in the notes 
sent to me by his daughter, for he says that in 1839 they took a 
sperm whale yielding 84 barrels of oil, which was regarded as the 
largest one ever taken here. It was struck by Josiah Smith. 
At that period Hayward’s whale oil establishment at St. David’s 
Island was one of the largest. A local paper, in 1832, in noticing 
the capture of a sperm whale, mentions that it was the seventh whale 
taken that season for the Hayward’s. At that time about twelve 
boats were engaged in the pursuit of whales,—chiefly sperm whales, 
it appears. 
Mr. Hurdis, in recording the capture of a half-grown sperm whale 
in 1840, remarks that it was the first one of the kind that had been 
captured in nine years. This is inconsistent with Mr. Hayward’s 
statement of the capture of the large one in 1839, and of the record 
of seven in 1832. But at that time the communication between St. 
David’s and Hamilton was not very easy nor rapid, so that Mr. 
Hurdis may have known very little about the captures of these 
whales. He records another, in July, 1851, as a rare capture. 
Matthew Jones records the capture of one 47 feet long, in May, 
1863 ; and of another 40 feet long, taken 14 miles south of David’s 
Head, June 19, 1869. 
Very few have been taken in recent years, the fishery having been 
nearly abandoned. I saw a small one, about 30 feet long, captured 
in April, 1901. It was regarded as a curiosity, even by the natives, 
and was kept several days for exhibition, under a tent, where it 
attracted crowds of visitors. 
This whale has certainly become comparatively rare in the Atlantic 
Ocean, as well as in all other regions, during the past sixty years. 
31.—The Exterminution of Breeding Sea Turtles ; the Lizard. 
a.—Former Abundance of Sea Turtles. 
Mr. Henry May and his company, 1593, and the companions of 
Sir George Somers, in 1609, found the sea-turtles breeding in large 
numbers on the sandy shores of the Bermudas, and those ship- 
