THE AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 187 



the inhabitants of Massachusetts Avere making their first attempts in the capture of 

 the whale (about 1650), the Biscayans had already extensively engaged in that 

 business ; the Dutch and the English had followed their example ; the Russian 

 Company had obtained an exclusive charter for it, and many other nations of 

 Europe had directed their attention to the northern fisheries." 



"It is probably true, as has been sometimes contended," says M'Culloch, "that 

 the Norwegians occasionally captured the whale before any other European nation 

 engaged in so perilous an enterprise. But the early efforts of the jSTonvegians were 

 not conducted on any systematic plan, and should only be regarded in the same 

 point of view as the fishing expeditions of the Esquimaux. The Biscayans were 

 certainly the first people who prosecuted the whale-fishery as a regular commercial 

 pursuit. They carried it on with great vigor and success in the twelfth, thirteenth, 

 and fourteenth centuries. In 1261, a tithe was laid upon the tongues of whales 

 imported into Bayonne, they being there a highly esteemed species of food. In 

 1388, Edward III relinquished to Peter de Puayanne a duty of six pounds sterling 

 a whale, laid on those brought into the port of Biarritz, to indemnifj^ liim for the 

 extraordinary expenses he had incurred in fitting out a fleet for the service of his 

 majesty. This fact proves beyond dispute that the fishery carried on from Biarritz 

 at the period referred to must have been very considerable indeed ; and it was also 

 prosecuted to a great extent from Cibourre, Vioux Boucan, and subsequently from 

 Rochelle and other places. The whales captured by the Biscayans were not so 

 large as those that are taken in the Polar Seas, and are supposed to have been 

 attracted southward in the pursuit of herrings. They were not very productive of 

 oil, but their flesh was used as an article of food, and the whalebone was applied 

 to a variety of useful purposes, and brought a very high price." 



In 1554, Pierre Belon writes concerning the Right Whale, or at least one of 

 the baleen whales, as follows: "The animal which we call the whale (baleen) was 

 named by the ancient Greeks, plialene; by the Latins, halena; and is designated by 

 the Italians as the capodogllo (oil -head). It is generally considered to be the 

 largest of all fishes, as may well be supposed from the size of the bones and ribs 

 of the animal, which is enormous, so that they have been much wondered at when 

 exhibited. It is for this reason that some have called it the Cete. There is no 

 ground for believing that the whale has two large horns on its head, as some have 

 drawn this animal ; but there is a kind of tube on the upper part of the head, 

 which does not, however, rise above the skin, and the existence of which only 

 becomes apparent when the animal throws out the water through it, which has 

 been taken in by the muzzle. This it does sometimes with such violence that 



