THE KING'S MIRROR 



men; for it drives the herring and all other kinds of 

 fish in toward the land from the ocean outside, as if 

 (Appointed and sent by the Lord for this purposed/This j~\ 

 is its duty and office as long as the fishermen keep the \ 

 peace on the fishing grounds. Its nature is also peculiar \ 

 in this, that it seemingly knows how to spare both ships 

 and men. Butfwhen the fishermen fall to quarreling and ~j 

 fighting, so that blood is spilt, this whale seems able to 

 perceive it; for it moves in between the land and the 

 fish and chases the shoals back into the ocean, just as 

 it earlier had driven them in toward the men.jThese 

 whales are not more than thirty ells in length, or forty 

 at the very largest. They would provide good food, if 

 men were allowed to hunt them, but no one is permitted 

 to catch or harm them, since they are of such great and 

 constant service to men. 



Another kind is called the sperm whale. These are 

 toothed whales, though the teeth are barely large 

 enough to be carved into fair-sized knife handles or 

 chess men. They are neither fierce nor savage, but rather 

 of a gentle nature, and so far as possible they avoid the 

 fishermen. In size they are about like those that I men- 

 tioned last. Their teeth are so numerous that more than 

 seventy can be found in the head of a single whale of 

 this sort. 



Still another species is called the right whale; * this 

 has no fins along the spine and is about as large as 

 the sort that we mentioned last. Sea-faring men fear 

 it very much, for it is by nature disposed to sport with 

 ships. 



* Balcena mysticetus; also called bowhead or Greenland whale. 



