32 COMMON WHALE.  Clafs IV. 
Quanto Delphinis Balena Britannica major. 
Sat. x. 
As much as Briti/b whales in fize furpafs : 
The dolphin race. 
To view thefe animals in a commercial light, we 
muft add, that the English were late before they en- 
gaged in the whale-fifhery: it appears by a fet of 
queries, propofed by an honeft merchant in the year 
1575, in order to get information in the bufinefs, 
that we were at that time totally ignorant of it, be- 
ing obliged to fend to Bifkaie for men fkilful in the 
catching of the whale, and ordering of the oil, and one 
cooper frilful to fet up the fiaved cafk*. This feems 
very ftrange ; for by the account Odther gave of his 
travels to King A/fred, near 700 years ** before that 
period, it is evident that he made that monarch ac- — 
quainted with the Norwegians practifing the whale- 
fithery ; but it feems all memory of that gainful 
employ, as well as of that able voyager Offher, and 
all his important difcoveries in the North were loft 
for near feven centuries. 
It was carried on by the Bi/cayeners long before we 
attempted the trade, and that for the fake not only 
of the oil, but alfo of the whalebone, which they 
feem to have long trafficked in. The earlieft notice 
we find of that article in our trade is by Hackluyt +, 
who fays it was brought from the Bay of St. Lau- 
rence by an Englifh fhip that went there for the barbes 
and fynnes of whales and train oil, A.D. 1594, and 
who found there feven or eight hundred whale 
* Hackluyt’s Col. voy. 1. 414. ** Idem I. 4. 
+ Hackluyt Il. 194. 
fynnes 
