Seal, Fish or Flesh? 
91 
Spenser attributes combativeness to the seal, but un¬ 
fortunately does not state his authority:— 
“ As when a dolphin and a sele are met 
In the wide champian of the ocean plaine, 
With cruell chaufe their courages they whet, 
The masterdome of each by force to gaine.” 
{Faerie Queene , vol. 2, 15.) 
The amphibious nature of the seal caused great per¬ 
plexity to Catholics, as to whether they might lawfully 
indulge in it during Lent. After much discussion, eccle¬ 
siastics came to the conclusion that if the creature were 
surprised on land, and took refuge in the woods, men must 
forbear to eat of it in Lent, when flesh is forbidden ; but 
if he should run to the waters, men may safely eat thereof. 
This nice distinction deserves credit for its ingenuity, and 
we may easily imagine that hungry sailors would take care 
that seals, when pursued, took the desired direction. 
We find many notices and descriptions of the Whale 
by the early navigators. The most accurate 
J J ~ . "Whale. 
account of the different varieties of whales is 
given by Thomas Edge, in a narrative of the first whaling 
expedition sent out by the Russian company in London 
to the coast of Greenland in the year 1611:— 
“ The whale is a fish or sea-beast of a large bignesse, about sixtie 
five foot long, and thirtie five foot thicke, his head is a third part of 
all his bodies quantitie, his spacious mouth contayning a very great 
tongue, and all his finnes, which we call whale finnes. These finnes 
are fastned or rooted in his upper chap, and spread over his tongue on 
both sides his mouth, being in number about two hundred and fiftie 
on one side, and as many on the other side. The longest finnes are 
placed in the midst of his mouth, and the rest doe shorten by their 
proportionable degrees, backward and forwards, from ten or eleven 
foot long to foure inches in length, his eyes are not much bigger 
then an oxes eyes. There are eight severall kinds of whales, and 
differing the one from the other in goodnesse, quantitie and qualitie. 
“ The first sort of whale is called the grand-bay, taking his name 
from Grand Bay in Newfoundland, as having there beene first killed : 
