[ 43 S 3 
to thofe, who are concern’d in the whale-fifhery ; it 
being foreign to my profefiion to profecute the appli - 
cation of it, farther than to give a hint j and alfo to 
my inclination, to perfecute the government for pa- 
tents or premiums, according to the modern merce- 
nary cuftom, leaving fuch acknowledgments to the 
public generofity. 
I know the application of this machine will be 
ftrenuoufly oppofed by the harpooners, becaufe one 
machine might do more execution than an hundred 
of them ; befides that the ignorant part of mankind 
has a ftrong prejudice againft all improvements, and 
a rigid attachment to old methods. 
A Dutch captain, who had been many years at 
Greenland, told me, that, if he had a machine, which 
‘would throw a harpoon fifteen yards with fufficient 
force, he would foon load his fhips : but faid, that it 
was impofiible to find out fuch a machine, becaufe 
his countrymen did not know it. 
LXXII. 
