winter in their parts, they sailed westward, and in 1372 reached the banks of Newfoundland, where they observed whales in abundance."

1

No authorities are cited by Fischer, and similar statements by other authors prove elusive. Justin Winsor summed up the evidence on this point in 1894 in the following language:

"We need not confidently trust the professions of Michel and other advocates of the Basques, and believe that a century before Cabot their hardy fishermen discovered the banks of Newfoundland, and had even penetrated into the bays and inlets of the adjacent coasts. There seems, however, little doubt that very early in the sixteenth century fishing equipments for these regions were made by the Normans, as Bréard chronicles them in his Documents relatifs à la Normand." 2

Of post-Columbian explorers of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence, the first to make mention of large whales is Cartier. Indeed, the allusions to cetaceans in his narrative of his second voyage to Canada appear to constitute the first authentic notice of whalebone whales on the east coast of North America. Cartier left St. Malo on his second voyage, May 19, 1535, and in July entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Soon afterwards he passed westward and proceeded to explore the St. Lawrence River. In his narrative of the journey we find the following:

[1535. CARTIER'S SECOND VOYAGE.]

"The said river [the St. Lawrence] beginneth beyond the Island of the Assumption, over against the high mountains of Hognedo, and of the seven islands: the distance over from one side to the other is about 35 or 40 leagues: in the midst it is above 200 fathom deep. The surest way to sail upon it is upon the south side; and toward the north, that is to say, from the said seven islands, from side to side there is seven leagues distance, where are also two great rivers that come down from the hills of Saguenay, and make divers very dangerous shelves in the sea. "At the entrance of those two rivers, we saw many a great store of whales and sea-horses."

Exactly where these two rivers are is uncertain, but early maps show the 'Land of the Seven Islands" to be on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, near its mouth. The whales mentioned were most probably whalebone whales, as mention is made soon afterwards of porpoises and the Beluga, thus:

"All the said country on both sides the [St. Lawrence] river, as far as Hochelay and beyond, is as fair and plain as ever was seen. There are also many whales, porpoises, sea-horses, and adhothuis [Beluga], which is a kind of fish that we had never seen nor heard of before.

'FISCHER, P., Documents pour servir à l'Histoire de la Baleine des Basques (Balana biscayensis). Annal. Sci. Nat., Zool., 15, 1872, art. 3, p. 15.

Van Beneden repeats the statement in his Hist. Nat. des Cétacés des Mers d'Europe, 1889, p. 25.

✓ WINSOR, JUSTIN, Cartier to Frontenac, 1894, pp. 9-10.

'Narration of the Navigation to the Islands of Canada, etc. Pinkerton's Voyages, 12, p. 657.

Cartier's Voyage, 1535. From Hakluyt, 3, p. 212.

"They are as great as porpoises, as white as any snow, their body and head fashioned as a greyhound, they are wont always to abide between the fresh and salt water, which beginneth between the river of Saguenay and Canada.”1

At the date of Cartier's explorations (and even somewhat before his time) whalers are believed to have pursued the Biscay whale, Balana biscayensis, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The records of this industry are for the most part buried in obscurity, or have been destroyed, and such as are now known contain no descriptions of whales. Eugen Gelcich, in an article on Duro's Disquisiciones Nauticas, writes:

"The regular appearance of the whale in the Bay of Biscay at the beginning of autumn and its disappearance with the first breath of spring must have been noticed very early by the Gascognes. Whether it occurred to any one, however, as early as the 10th century to follow the whale opportunely with its departure, in order to discover its summer station, is not demonstrable, although a tradition relative thereto existed in Spain, and perhaps still exists. Vargas Ponce [a celebrated Spanish historian] in spite of the most diligent search found only records since the year 1530. These were in the municipal and parochial records of Brio. The names of the caravels as well as of their commanders are given. The celebrated Spanish admiral, Juan de Urdaire, began his maritime career in such voyages, which reached to the American coasts.'

Later in the century we have the statement made by Anthony Parkhurst in a letter to Hakluyt, in 1578, to the effect that at that time from 20 to 30 Basque whaling vessels repaired to Newfoundland "to kill whale for Traine." 3

For the year 1587, we have the following reference in the narrative of Davis's third voyage:

"The 17th [of August, 1587] we met a shippe at Sea, and, as farre as wee could judge, it was a Biskaine: wee thought she went a fishing for Whales, for in 52 degrees or thereabout, we saw very many.'

His Traverse Book at this date contains the following:

He

"The true course, &c. This day, upon the Banke [Grand Bank of Newfoundland] we met a Biscaine bound either for the Grand bay or for the passage. chased us.' 995

Narration of the Navigation to the Islands of Canada, etc. Pinkerton's Voyages, 12, p. 658. "Aug. 18, 1535, the sailors saw more whales near Anticosti Id. than they could remember ever to have seen before." (Eschricht, from Marc Lescarbot's Histoire de la nouvelle France, 4th ed., 1624, p. 285.)

2

GELCICH, E., Der Fischfang der Gascogner und die Entdeckung von Neufundland. Nach den "Disquisiciones Nauticas" von Cæsaro Fernandez Duro bearbeitet. Zeit. Gesell. Erdkunde, Berlin, 18, 1883, p. 258.

HAKLUYT, The Principal Navigations of the English Nation, 3, 1600, p. 132.

'The Voyages and Works of John Davis. Ed. by A. H. Markham. Hakluyt Soc., 1880, p. 48.

Op. cit., p. 57. Davis started Aug. 15th at noon in lat. 52° 12′ and 16 leagues from shore, and

in the next 44 hours went 80 leagues about E. by S.

Edward Haies, in his account of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's voyage to Newfoundland in 1583, includes among the "commodities" of the island "abundance of whales," "for which also," he writes, "is a very great trade in ye bayes of Placentia and Grand bay, where is made Trane oyles of the whale."1

Toward the close of the century, in 1594, the ship Grace of Bristoll made a trip to the Gulf of St. Lawrence for whales and reported finding some 700 or 800 pieces of whalebone in two large Basque whaling vessels which had been wrecked in St. George's Bay, Newfoundland. The account, in Hakluyt's Voyages, is as follows:

[1594. VOYAGE OF THE GRACE OF BRISTOLL" TO THE BAY OF ST. LAWRENCE.]

"In this bay of Saint George [Newfoundland, May, 1594] we found the wrackes of 2 great Biskaine ships, which had bene cast away three yeres before: where we had some seven or eight hundred whale finnes, and some yron bolts and chains of their mayne shrouds & fore shroudes: al their traine [oil] was beaten out with the weather but the caske remained still. Some part of the commodities were spoiled by tumbling downe of the cliffs of the hils, which covered part of the caske, and greater part of those whale finnes, which we understood to be there by foure Spaniards which escaped & were brought to S. John de Luz.

"Then being enformed, that the Whales which are deadly wounded in the grand Baye [near the Strait of Belle Isle], and yet escape the fisher for a time, are woont usually to shoot themselves on shore on the Isle of Assumption, or Natiscotec, which lieth in the very mouth of the great river that runneth up to Canada, we shaped our course over to that long Isle of Natiscotec.

"And after wee had searched two dayes and a night for the whales which were wounded which we hoped to have found there, and missed of our purpose we returned backe to the Southwarde." "

2

In 1594 or 1595, Robert Dudley made a voyage to the West Indies, returning along the coast of the United States and Canada. On April 11, 1595, the following was recorded:

"After wee weare past the meridian of the Bermudes our courses brought us not far from the cost of Labradore or Nova Francia, which wee knew by the great aboundance of whalles." 3

Lescarbot, who took part in the establishment of the French colonies in Acadia and Port Royal in 1605, published in 1609 a history of the region, in the course of which he describes the whale fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, though he does not describe the whale itself. This, however, was doubtless the Right whale. He remarks:

[1609. LESCARBOT'S NARRATIVE.]

"I leaue the maner of taking of her [Leviathan], described by Oppian and S. Basil for to come to our French-men, and chiefely the Basques, who doe goe euery

2

HAKLUYT, R., The Principal Navigations of the English Nation, 1589, p. 689.

Op. cit., 3, 1600, p. 194. The voyage of the Grace of Bristol of M. Rice Fones, a Barke of thirty-five Tunnes, vp into the Bay of Saint Laurence to the Northwest of Newefoundland, as farre as the Isle of Assumption or Natiscotec, for the barbes or fynnes of Whales and traine oyle, made by Silvester Wyet, Shipmaster of Bristoll.

The Voyage of Sir Robert Dudley to the West Indies, 1594-1595. Hakluyt Soc., 1899, P. 53.

yeare to the great riuer of Canada for the Whale. Commonly the fishing thereof is made in the riuer called Lesquemin toward Tadoussac. And for to doe it they goe by skowtes to make watch vpon the tops of rockes, to see if they may haue the sight of some one: and when they haue discovered any, foorthwith they goe with fower shaloupes after it, and hauing cunningly borded her, they strike her with a harping iron to the depth of her lard, and to the quicke of the flesh. Then this creature feeling herselfe rudely pricked, with a dreadfull boisterousnesse casteth herselfe into the depth of the sea. The men in the meane while are in their shirts, which vere out the cord whereunto the harping iron is tied, which the whale carrieth away. But at the shaloupe side that hath giuen the blow there is a man redy with a hatchet in hand to cut the said cord, least perchance some accident should happen that it were mingled, or that the Whales force should be too violent: which notwithstanding hauing found the bottome, and being able to goe no further, she mounteth vp againe leasurely aboue the water: and then againe she is set upon with glaue-staves, or pertuisanes, very sharp, so hotly that the saltwater pierceing within her flesh she looseth her force, and remaineth there. Then one tieth her to a cable at whose end is an anker which is cast into the sea, then at the end of six or eight daies they goe to fetch her, when time and opportunity permits it they cut her in peeces, and in great kettles doe seeth the fat which melteth it selfe into oile, wherewith they may fill 400 Hogs-heads, sometimes more, and sometimes lesse, according to the greatnesse of the beast, and of the tongue commonly they draw fiue, yea six hogs-heads full of traine." [Then follows quotation from Acosta's account of Indians taking whales in Florida.]1

When Champlain was returning from Tadoussac on the St. Lawrence River to France, 1610, his vessel ran into a whale and he takes the occasion to describe the whale fishery in detail, as follows:

[1610. CHAMPLAIN'S DESCRIPTION OF THE WHALE FISHERY IN NEW FRANCE, CHAPTER XII.] "It has seemed to me not to be inappropriate to give here a short description of the whale fishery, as many persons have never seen it and believe that they are taken by shooting with guns, while there are liars so unblushing that they affirm this to those who know nothing of it. From these false accounts many persons have obstinately disputed this with me.

"Those then who are most skilful at this fishery are the Basques, who in order to prosecute it, place their vessels in a safe harbor, near where they judge there are numbers of whales, and equip many boats filled with good men and lines, which are small ropes made of the best hemp obtainable, having a length of at least 150 fathoms; and have a great many lances of the length of a half-pike, which have the iron six inches broad, of others a foot and a half or two feet long, very sharp. They have in each boat a harpooner, who is a man of the most agile and skilful among them, and draws the most pay after the masters, inasmuch as it is the most hazardous position. The boat above mentioned being outside the harbor, they look in all directions in order that they may if possible see and discover a whale feeding off one shore or the other; and not seeing any, they return to land and ascend the highest promontory they find, for the purpose of seeing as far as possible, and there they station a man as a sentinel, who seeing a whale, which they discover as much by its size as by the water which it spouts out of its blowholes, which is more than

1

LESCARBOT, Nova Francia, Or the Description of that part of New France which is one continent with Virginia, &c. Trans. by P. E. London, 1609, pp. 268–269.

a barrel at a time, and to the height of two lances; and from this water which it spouts up, they judge how much oil it will probably yield. There are some from which as much as 120 (six vingts) barrels may be obtained, from others less.

"On seeing this huge fish, they embark promptly in their boats and by force of oars or wind, go as close as they may. Seeing the whale between two waves, at the same instant the harpooner is at the front of the boat with a harpoon, which is an iron 2 feet long and one half broad at the wings, hafted on a staff the length of a half-pike, at the middle of which there is a groove where the line is attached; and as soon as the harpooner sees his chance, he throws his harpoon at the whale, the same entering well forward. As soon as it (the whale) feels itself wounded, it goes to the bottom. And if by chance on returning a number of times, it assaults the boat or the men with its tail, it shatters them like a glass.

"This is all the risk they run of being killed in harpooning it. But as soon as they have cast the harpoon, they let their line run out, till the whale is at the bottom; and sometimes as it does not go down directly, it tows the boat more than eight or nine leagues, and goes as fast as a horse, and the men are very often compelled to cut their line, fearing that the whale may drag them under the water. But when it goes directly to the bottom it remains there a little time & then returns quietly to the surface; and as fast as it rises, they take in their line little by little, and then when it is on top they place two or three boats around it with their lances, with which they give it many thrusts; and feeling itself struck the whale descends directly below the surface, losing blood & becoming enfeebled in such a manner that it has no more strength nor vitality, and coming again to the surface, they succeed in killing it. When it is dead, it does not go down to the bottom again; and then they fasten to it good ropes and tow it ashore, in the place where they have their try works (degrat), which is the place where they boil the blubber of the whale in order to extract the oil.

"Such is the manner in which they fish and not by shooting with guns, as many think, as I have said above.”1

This is repeated from Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, Paris, 1613, p. 226 (Laverdière, Œuvres de Champlain, 2d ed., 3, 1870, p. 374), where it occurs in connection with the voyage from Tadoussac to France in 1610; but in the latter place it is introduced thus:

"On the 13th of the said month we departed from Tadoussac, and arrived at the Isle Percée the next day, where we found a number of vessels engaged in the fishery for dry and fresh fish.

"On the 18th of the said month we departed from Isle Percée and passed along the 42a parallel of latitude without having any knowledge of the great bank where the fishery for fresh fish is carried on, for the said place is too narrow on this parallel.

Being half across, we ran into a whale which was asleep and the vessel passing above it made a very large opening in it near the tail, which caused it immedi ately to wake (without our vessel being damaged) and shed a great amount of blood.

"It seems to me not inappropriate to give here a brief description of the whale fishery," etc.

'LAVERDIÈRE, Œuvres de Champlain, 2d ed., 5, 1870, pp. 835-837. This is Chapter XII in Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France Occidentale, dicte Canada, faits par le Sr. de Champlain. Paris, 1632.