THE FIN FISH. 
whale fifliery is carried on. It is, however, a booty 
which the fifhermen feldom choofe to purfue : The whale- 
bone adhering to its upper jaw is fhort and knotty, and 
therefore of very little v.alue : The blubber alfo yielded 
by this fpecies is very inconfiderable in quantity ; and 
thefe circumflanees, added to its extreme fiercenefs and 
agility, render the capture both difficult and dangerous ; 
hence our feamen generally negledl it. 
But meagre as this animal may feem to thofe whofe 
objeft is the procuring of oil, it is held in great eileem 
by the miferable Greenlanders ; for its fleffi affords them a 
food which to men fo poorly fupplied is very agreeable. 
This fiffi is generally of the fame length with the com- 
mon whale, but of a much more {lender conformation. 
The lips are brown like a twitted rope : The fpout-hole 
is as it were fplit in the top of its head, through which 
it blows water with much more violence, and to a greater 
height, than the common kind. The filhers are not fond 
of feeing it; for on its appearance the others retire from, 
thofe feas*. It is impoffible to determine whether this 
fpecies be the fame with the Phyfalos and Phyfeter of the 
an cimt writers, fo vague are the terms in which they 
fpeak of that fiffi f. If that particular name was affign- 
cd it from its faculty of fpouting water, or blowing, the 
habit is not peculiar to any one fpecies, but common to 
all the whale kind. It would appear from the name 
given it by Linnaeus , that he believed this to be the ani- 
mal fpoken-of by thefe writers. Rondeletius and Gefner 
have been of the fame opinion ; hut the defeription the 
full of thefe writers has given of this animal is in many 
refpe&s 
* Britilh Zool. 
t Vide Oj-pian Haleut.L. 1. 1 . 368. Oellan Hitt, anijn. and Min. lib. 
c. j. 
