8^ Captain Scoresby on the Size of the Greenland Whale. 
butts; in 1680, the average of 1873 fish was 38 barrels, or 
butts; and, in 1681, the average of 889 whales taken in the 
Greenland or Spitzbergen fishery by the Dutch fieet, was only 
34 barrels, or 23 butts English. The largest average 31 J butts, 
equal to about 12 tons of oil, corresponds with a whale of 9 or 
10 feet whalebone, and 40 to 45 feet in length ; the smallest, 
or 23 butts, corresponds with a fish of about 8 feet bone. But 
here it may be objected, that the Spitzbergen fishery affords 
many small whales, and, therefore, the general average can give 
no idea of the dimensions of the largest. As such, we shall con- 
sider the average product of whales taken in Davis’ Straits, 
which have never been found, cubs excepted, but of a size 
capable of procreating the species. This fishery, when first 
established by the Dutch, certainly afforded whales considerably 
larger. From 1719 to 1728, the produce of 1251 large whales 
taken by the Dutch fleet, was 74.152 quardeelen of blubber, 
being 60 quardeelen per fish ; which is the largest average I 
have observed in the wEole list. This corresponds with 40J 
butts, or 20 J tons of blubber, calculated to produce 15 to 16 
tons of oil. A wEale at present of 10 or 11 feet bone, and 48 
to 50 feet in length, usually affords a similar quantity. 
In a paper by a Mr Gray, registered in a manuscript pre- 
served in the British Museum,, by Mr Oldenburg, secretary to 
the Royal Society, in 1662-3, and, consequently, referring to a 
period at least as remote as that, vdiere he speaks of the ^vagea. 
of the men they employed in the fishery, he observes, they have a 
certain perquisite for every 13 tons of oil, which we call a 
whale ;” thereby implying, that thisy which corresponds with 
the produce of the present whales of 9 or 10 feet bone, and 40 
to 45, or 50 feet in length, was the average size then captur-, 
od. 
Captain Anderson, who had made thirty-three voyages to 
Greenland in the first age of the Spitzbergen fishery, about the 
year 1640-50, as we infer from the circumstance of his having 
relieved eight men who wintered in Spitzbergen in 1630, the in- 
teresting narrative of whose sufferings is given by Edward Pel- 
ham, one of the adventurers, in the fourth volume of ChurchilFs 
Collection of Voyages, notices the size of the whale in these 
Avords : An ordinary whale will yield 12 toijs of oil, soine 20. 
