OF CETACEOUS FISHES. 
49 
lle a ' aout feven hundred in all : about two thirds of that 
“Umber are of a length fit for ufe, the reft being too 
ort . The oil is extracted from different parts of the 
0t v ; the tongue alone of fonae fifh yielding from five 
t0 fix barrels. 
early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, 
*fie Bifcayneers were in poflfeffion of a very cor.fiderable 
^ ra de to the coaft of Greenland : They long en- 
■^°yed the profits of a lucrative traffic in train oil, and 
^’hale-bone, before the Englijh attempted to obtain any 
a ^ e of that commerce. What probably firll gave them 
an idea of the advantages to be reaped from it, was the 
Cc ulent of one of their fiiips bringing a cargo of whale- 
^ e a °d train-oil from the bay of St Laurence , part of 
le burden of two large Bifcayan fhips that had been 
Recked there about the year fifteen hundred and ninety - 
years after that period, the town of Hull had 
e honour of firft attempting that profitable branch of 
j 5 C ' A c P re ^ ent ^ f eems t0 be on the decline, thenum- 
^ r °f fitli being greatly reduced by their conftant capture 
huch a vaft length of time. It is now faid that the 
from a defect of whales, apply themfelves to feal 
t(lr ^ r ^’ fi"° m which animals they alfo extract an oil, and 
not ^ ^' llls to S°°fi account. This trade however will 
and P_ r ° ba bly be of any long continuance, for thele Ihy 
tmid creatures will foon be induced to quit thofe 
too ^ bein g perpetually harraffed. We are informed 
front "* l t:iS natlves °f Greenland already begin to fuffer 
the fcarcity of leals in their feas. The fielh of theft* 
Vol . III. 
fi filers 
filh, 
G 
animals 
