6:0 Retrospect of French 
“ Mémoire Historique sur l’Antiquité de 
li Péche de ja Baleine, par Jes Nations 
Européennes.” An Historica] Memoir, re- 
-lativeto the Antiquity of the Whale 
“Fishery, by S.B. J. Noel, of Rouen. 
England has never been as yet able to 
carry the herring fishery either to that 
degree of perfection or prosperity, which 
1t formerly attained in Holland. It is 
otherwise, however, in respect to that 
nnportant branch of commerce, which 
forms the subject of the present_ work, 
and it naturaily follows, that every thing 
concerning it, cannot fail to be read 
with avidity,-as it is a theme boch curi- 
ous and interesting. 
Lhe Basques and Biscayans, to most 
writers, have been supposed the first 
fishermen, who dared to. pursue, to 
attack, and to overcome, the whale, in 
its own element. Sv early as 1575, 
they exposed themselves to all the pe- 
Tils of distant navigation, and_ pros 
ceeded to the high !atitudes in the vicinity 
of the pole. There they combated with 
the cetaceous tribes, and carried ona 
mortal war against them, amidst the im-. 
mense masses of fluating ice, and in those 
deep and extensive seas which these enor- 
mous animals inhabit. In 1611, the Eng- 
lish determined to follow their example ; 
and accordingly, some vessels were fitted- 
out during the same year at the port of 
Tiull, and sent northward; when, in 
~ 1612, the Dutch as usual demanded, to 
participate in the risques and the advan- 
tages of these perilous expeditions. It 
“accordingly appears to be the common 
opinion, that first the Basques and Bis- 
cayans, and then the English and'Dutch, 
1 succession, engaged in these distant, 
dangerous, and profitable, expeditions, 
But a more critical research into the an- 
tiquity of the northern fisheries, will be 
sufacient, according to our author, to rec- 
uty tbis assertion, by proving, that the 
origin of the whale fishery may be traced 
up to a more distant epoch, that of the 
ninth century, at least. 
_ “ Ishail not here stop,” says he, “to 
Inguire respecting the whale fishery men. 
tioned by Oppian, in his Treatise de Pis- 
eatu, as Limagine, that he alluded to the 
catching of animals of a smaller balk. I 
prefer, therefore, to fix the ninth century 
as the true epoch, because it restores to 
the fishermen of the North the priority 
in respect to those hardy enterprizes, 
which ensure to a feeble being like man, 
armed only with a simple harpoon, at 
once the capture and the possession of 
@ monstrous auimal, which must be at. 
Literature—History. 
tacked in a tempestuous element, and at 
a great distance from land. : 
‘«* One of my authorities consists in the 
Periplus of Other, and is extracted from 
the account presented to Alfred the 
Great, king of England, of the distant 
voyages undertaken by himself in person, — 
i) order to obtain information, to what 
extent the coast of Finmarck was in- 
habited. This navigator, after observing 
that the men live there, during the suin- 
mer in fishing, and during the winter by 
the chace; declares that he occupied the 
‘space of three days only in repairing to 
the northern station, frequented by the 
whale-fishers.* Biarmos, who was his 
companion during the expedition, also as- 
sures us, that he himself lrad often accom- 
panied other Norwegians in pursuit of 
whales ; that they were sometimes forty, 
and sometimes fifty ells in length, and 
that he and five others killed no fewer 
than sixty of these, during the space of 
two days. It is also evident, from ano- 
ther passage of the Periplus,f that the 
people of Norway sometimes fed on this. 
fish. 7. 
* Thorfin, one of those Scandinavian 
adventurers, who undoubtedly discovered 
the northern parts of America, many 
ages before the expedition of Columbus, 
having embarked for the Weinland, 
which has since been supposed ta 
be the country known as the coast 
cf Labrador, had the good fortune 
to see a whale driven on shore by the 
tide. Tle and. the persons who accom- 
panied him, immediately dispatched and 
lived on it for a considerable time after. 
A Danish work,§ supposed with great 
probability, to have been written towards 
the middle of the tweifth century, and at 
any rate, of a date anterior to that which 
has been assigned to the first fishing ex- 
peditions of the Basques, announces 
that the Icelanders, about the same 
time, also set out in pursuit of the whales, 
which they killed op the coast, and that 
they feasted on them. In short, Langehek 
here takes not to atfirm|| that the whale 
fishery (haval fungst) was common in 
the inast northern countries of Eurape 
soon after the ninth century. | 
* Da ves he sva féor nord, &¢! Olth, & 
Wulfst. Perip. Langebek, Rer. Dan. Hist. 
med. /Evi. II. 108—109. : 
+ Idem II. 111. ‘ he ‘ 
t Snarre Sturlessons Heims Kringla. OLA¥s 
Trys. ‘ve 
§ Kongs Sunyg-sio. 101. - ae 
|| Lansepex, Rer. Dan. Hist. Med. Aivig 
Il. 108. 
6¢ Whethey 
. 
‘| 
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