122 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWA T. 



It is feldom heard that they do any harm; for tho' numbers 

 of them fometimes come up elofe to the fifhing-boats, yet they 

 fwim away as foon as the people ftrike the edge of the boat 

 with the oar : this little alarm drives them away, unlefs it be at 

 the time that they pair together, and then it is faid they will 

 come up to the boats with more boldnefs ; fo that they mufl row 

 off to avoid danger. I fhall particularize the manner in which 

 they are caught on the coaft of Spitzberg and Greenland, and 

 in Davis's Streights, by thofe fhips that annually go thither, 

 and part their men into feveral boats, in order to kill them with 

 harpoons. This is defcribed at large by feveral authors, but no 

 where more accurately than in Frederick Marten's Travels in 

 Spitzberg and Greenland, cap. viii. p. no & fequ. It is very 

 well known that their fat, and what is called Whale-bone, which 

 the fafhion in this century has brought > into great efteem, are 

 very profitable articles to thofe who are concerned in the Whale 

 fifhery. That neither their femen nor the brains yield ambergreafe, 

 as Ol. Magnus imagined, is certain ;:but the brains of the famous 

 Hval-Rav, or Sperma-Ceti Whale, yield the fined fperma ceti, 

 as is obferved by Th. Bartholin, in Medic. Domeft, Danor. p. 

 Perfect. 20 7 * Tho' the Whale is of fuch a monftrous fize, he is often 

 much harraffed by fmaller Fifties, which he cannot wholly efcape. 

 The anonymous author of that account, which is annexed to 

 the DaniiTi tranflation of Mr, Peirere's Defcription .of Iceland, 

 treats (p. 108) of a Fifh that has (harp horns on his back; and 

 obferves, that with thofe weapons it tears- open the Whale's 

 belly, by running under him/ and then preffing himfelf up clofe 

 to him. There are feveral Birds which purfue and betray the 

 Whale by the noife they make, and will fall upon him, and beat 

 him with their beaks, when he comes to the furface of the 

 water. I am told by our apothecaries, that the os fephe in their 

 fhops, which the peafants here call hvalskkel, and find floating 

 upon the water, is the back-bone of a Fifh which fhall be 

 defcribed in the following fheets, called Spute or Blekfprate, 

 the Tuk-fifh, or Sepia; which, like the Whale-lice, Hicks 

 clofe to him, burrowing into his flefh : when he gets to a rock 

 to fcratch himfelf, he then kills them ; but their skeletons ftill 

 remain fattened to his skin, and leave the os fepise above- 

 mentioned. The Spekhuggeren, or Vahnen, is alfo a fmall 

 Fifti of about four feet long, and which fhall afterwards be 



* The fame is affirmed by Ol. Wormius, in his Mufeum, p. 34, with this addition, 

 that not all Whales, but thofe fort that are called Dogling have fperma ceti in their 

 fcull : this opinion is again contradided by Theodorus Haflfeus. See Bibliotheque 

 Germanique. T. xv. p. 162. ■ , 



