OEDEE OF CETACEA. 43 



In a given latitude a distinction is made, according to the habits 

 of the Whale, between the open-sea season, that is to say the 

 season in which the Whale keeps at twentj^, thirty, or forty 

 leagues from land, and the bay season, a period at which the 

 Whale comes near the land, and confines itself to places where 

 the water is shallow, sheltered from the wind, in a bay, or a creek, 

 near a coast. The open-sea season is in the spring and summer, 

 the bay season in the autumn and winter. No Cetacea are to 

 be found on the fishing-groimds out of those two seasons. 



Though always obedient to the seasons, these animals never- 

 theless leave their habitual places of abode, or cease to return 

 to them, when they have been pursued there during manv 

 years by numerous whalers; or else when, for some mysterious 

 reason, their food has become less abundant there. It is not 

 known, however, whither they go when they leave those lati- 

 tudes. 



Before describing the Whale fishery, as it is inappropriately 

 styled, and making known the weapons and processes at present 

 made use of in it, we will glance at the history of this branch of 

 marine industry. 



Who can tell now where the first 'Whale was killed ? One can 

 only make conjectures on this point. The temperature of the 

 medium in which the Whale lives has a great influence over the 

 rapidity of its movements — over its sensibility. In the seas of 

 the extreme north its movements are slow ; it feels pain very 

 little, it makes but a poor defence of itself, and flees before its 

 pursuers but slowly.* It was then, without doubt, in these regions 

 that the courageous idea of attacking this colossus of the sea was 

 flrst conceived. The inhabitants of the northern countries were 

 the more incited to this enterprise as they saw in these monstrous 

 creatures an immense reservoir of oil, a matter of which they stood 

 so much in need ; a provision of meat which, when frozen, kept 

 through the whole winter ; bones suitable for the framework of 

 their dwelling-places, and diverse other useful products, furnished 

 by the intestines and the tendons of this gigantic object of pursuit. 



Most extravagant tales have been told about the primitive 

 hunting of the Whale. It is said that when the savages of Florida 

 perceived a 'WTiale, one of them got on its back, drove a plug into 

 * Here, again, the Whales and Korquals are confounded. — Ed. 



