54 
VO r AGE TO GREENLAND, 
face of the mouth, and is partly blubber and partly 
krang*, intermixed: near the tip it chiefly consists 
of the former ; much blubber is also procured from 
the other extremity. 
In inquiring into the origin of the British whale 
trade, it is observable that it was late before our 
nation engaged in the fishery ; for it appears that, 
in the year 1575, we were totally ignorant of the 
trade, being obliged to send to “ Biskaie for men 
skilful in the catching of the whale, and ordering of 
the oil, and one cooper skilful to set up the staved 
cask.” This seems very strange ; as in the account 
given by Octher to King Alfred of his travels, near 
seven hundred years before that period, he made 
that monarch acquainted with the Norwegian prac- 
tice of the whale-fishery ; but it seems, that all 
memory of that advantageous branch of commerce, 
as well as of Octher and of all his important dis- 
coveries in the north, was lost for nearly seven 
centuries. The trade was carried on by the Bis- 
cayans, long before it was attempted by the En- 
glish ; and that, for the sake not only of the oil, but 
also of the whale-bone, in which they seem long to 
have dealt. The earliest notice we find of that 
article in our own trade, is by Hackluyt, who says, 
it was brought from the Bay of St. Lawrence by 
an English ship that went there for barbes and 
fynnes of whales and train oil, a. d, 1594, and who 
* Kraiig is a name given by fishermen to the fleshy part, after 
the blubber is taken off. 
