OF CETACEOUS FISHES. 
5 ° 
animals conftitutes their principal fubfillence ; and fhouli 
they be at laft extirpated, or defert the coaft:, that mi- 
ferable people would be in danger of perilhing through 
want*. 
Before the year 1,598, the whale feems never to have 
been taken on our coaft s but when it was accidentally 
driven a-fbore-j-. It was then deemed a royal filh, and 
the king and queen divided the fpoil between them ; the 
king afferting bis right to the head, and her majefty by 
prerogative entitled to the tail\. A total revolution in 
the falhion of eatables, and the great quantity of thefe 
fifti that are now imported, has rendered this prerogative 
of royalty of lefs importance, and even ludicrous : for- 
merly however the whale as well as the porpoife, and dol- 
phin, was probably a dilh ferved at the royal board ; and 
from its magnitude it muft have held a very refpectable 
ftation there. Such dainties continued in vogue l'o late 
as the reign of Henry VIII. ; for, in a houfehold book 
of that prince §, it is 'ordered, that if a porpoife fhould be 
too big for a horfe load, allowance fhould be made to the 
purveyor. Even in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we 
find directions for the dreffing and ferving up of the dol- 
phin with porpoife fauce; acompofkion of vinegar, crumbs 
of bread, and fugar }|. 
The fleih of the whale has always made a part of the 
food of forne favage nations. The natives of Greenland 
as well as the barbarous tribes that inhabit the vicinity 
of the fouth pole, eat the Selb prepared in various ways, 
and drink the oil, which is with them afirlt rate delicacy. 
The finding of a dead whale is an adventure confideied 
among, 
* Britifh Zoology, Clafs iv. Genus X. 
+ Britifh Zoology, idem ibidem • 
| Black ft on, Comm. i. c. 4. 5 Archseologla, Vol, Uu 
|| Gaij. OpuTcula 1 16.- 
