WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND PORPOISES 
in British waters. This is one of the most valuable of all the species, 
not only on account of the size and quality of the baleen, but also for 
the rich supply of oil furnished by the blubber. For this reason it was 
persistently hunted, after the discovery of its haunts, around the shores 
of Spitzbergen, first by the English, assisted by Basque harpooners in 1611, 
and later by other European nations. 
Besides being of superior value, the Greenland Whale was easier to 
capture and kill than its near relation the Atlantic Right Whale of more 
temperate seas, and this ultimately nearly led to the extinction of the 
species. 
It is worth noting that, although the early whale hunters were well 
aware of the distinctness of the two species, in later days when the Atlantic 
Right Whale had almost disappeared in European waters, they were con- 
fused and classed as the same animal. 
Even William Scoresby, a whaler of great experience, as well as a man 
of high scientific attainments, who penetrated farther north than any of his 
predecessors, never met with the more southern species, and did not believe 
in its existence. His book on the Arctic Regions, published in 1820, 
gives the best known account of the Greenland Whale fishing, and is 
full of interesting facts. 
The Danish cetologists Eschricht and Reinhardt were the first in 
modern times to point out the difference between the Greenland and 
Atlantic Right Whales. The Right Whales were so named because they 
were the most profitable kind to hunt on account of their valuable baleen 
and large yield of oil, and they were also less difficult to kill than the 
Rorquals and others. 
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