no NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



covered, as it were, with a large city, with a great many chim- 

 nies fmoaking ; for the flioal of Whales generally confifls of 

 fome thoufands. and they ftretch along the coaft, chiefly from 

 Stavange or Karmfund, to Chriftianfund, in the diocefe of Tron- 

 heim, which is about fixty Norway miles. The high water-fpouts 

 before-mention'd are thrown up by the Whale, on his fetching 

 breath. Every time he breathes he comes to the furface of the 

 water ; for all the cetaceous kind have lungs, and breathe like 

 quadrupeds, requiring frequent fupplies of frefh air. 



The Whale, for its ufefulnefs in driving out the finall Fifh from 

 their fhelter, is called here the Her ring- whale, of which the fmaller 

 kind moftly frequents our coaft. The large Whale, or Balsena 

 vulgaris, fometimes, tho' not often, overfhoots himfelf, and comes 

 aground, or ftrikes upon a rock, and expires there. He then be- 

 comes the property of the owner of the land, according to the 

 Norvegian law. Their length amounts frequently to 60 or 70 

 feet* ; their fhape pretty much refembles that of the Cod : it has 

 a large head, and fmall eyes in proportion : on the top of the head 

 there are two openings, or holes, through which it fpouts out the 

 water taken in, as it breathes, like a fountain, which makes a 

 violent noife. 



sha m e and ^ e ^ n °^ t ' ie W^° is fmooth, and not very thick; the 

 colour of the back is dark, variegated, or marbled ; under the 

 belly it is white ; their fwallow, or throat, is very narrow, in pro- 

 portion to their fize : under their back-bone lies a long bladder, 

 which is dilated or contracted as the Fifh pleafes. The ufe of this 

 is not to receive any nourifhment, for none is found there, but 

 only to lighten the Fifh, and make him buoyant. The tail, which 

 he makes ufe of as an oar to row himfelf with, and which 

 prudence forbids to approach too near, has this particularity, that 

 it is not perpendicular to the furface of the water as he fwims, 

 like that of other kinds of Fifh, but horizontal 3 and this is the 

 great characleriftick of the fpecies. They copulate after the 

 manner of land animals, and to that end ftand upright on their 



* I do not know whether one may depend upon Pliny's authority, when he fays, in 

 his Hift. Nat. Lib. ix. c. 3, that in the Indian feas are found Whales four Roman acres 

 long. Balaenas quaternorum jugerum j that is, 960 feet. Lib.xxxii. cap. 1. he talks 

 of fome Whales fix hundred feet long, and three hundred and lixty feet broad, which 

 had been carried in with a flood to Arabia. I think that this cautious writer in other 

 refpe&s has, in this point, been too credulous. In the mean time this is true, according 

 to the general opinion, that the fize of the Whale grows lefs by degrees. For theft 

 laft twenty years one feldom fees any fo large as they in general were, efpecially near 

 Greenland, where two or three feldom yield a greater quantity of train-oil than for- 

 merly was extracted from one. The natural caufe of this feems to be our common 

 induftry in catching them, fo that we do not give them time to attain to their full 

 growth, 



tails. 



