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CHAPTER II.

A CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT OF IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICAN WHALEBONE WHALES.

Knowledge of whales, as of other animals, owes its principal advancement to the observations of three classes of persons, the explorer and traveller, who notices them casually among the varied wonders of nature; the naturalist, amateur, or professional; and the person engaged in, or interested in, industrial pursuits.

To the casual observations of the earliest discoverers and explorers of America we have already given attention, and in the whale fishery we have no direct interest at present. We shall present, therefore, in this chapter a brief account of American and European writings, whether by naturalists or practical whalemen, which have contributed to a considerable extent to the advancement of knowledge of the whale bone whales found in North American waters. Writings on the Greenland whale, Balana mysticetus, will be excepted, because the present work does not cover that species. This exception is an important one, involving a number of early treatises of much value, such as those of Zorgdrager, Scoresby, etc., which contain excellent accounts of the whale fisheries about Greenland and of the habits of the Greenland whale.

So far as writings of American zoologists are concerned, the number relating to baleen whales is surprisingly small, a fact due no doubt to the great difficulty of assembling and maintaining cetological collections, and the scarcity of opportu nities for examining living or fresh specimens under favorable conditions. The cetological collections of Europe are for the most part the accumulations of centuries. In America, even to-day, such collections are exceedingly meagre, and it is scarcely to be wondered at, therefore, that so few American naturalists have had anything to say about this order of mammals.

While, as above noted, the present work does not deal with the whale fishery, it should be repeated that some of the most substantial contributions to the natural history of whales have been derived directly or indirectly from persons engaged in, or interested in, that industry, and, indeed, without these treatises cetology would be exceedingly deficient in certain directions.

1. Natural Histories and Miscellaneous Contributions.
Seventeenth Century.

The writings of naturalists covering the period between the middle of the sixteenth and the middle of the eighteenth centuries, beginning with the treatises of Rondelet (1554) and Olaus Magnus (1555) and ending with the tenth edition of

Linnæus's Systema Naturæ, may be conveniently divided into three classes. In the first class belong the general natural histories, commonly covering the whole field of geography, zoölogy, botany, anthropology, and often other branches of science as well. These works are descriptive rather than systematic, and frequently contain reflections on and discussions of philological, theological, and political subjects.

The second class comprises works relating more strictly to animals, plants, and minerals, but in which little or no attempt is made to classify the various natural objects described. Finally, we have the formal natural histories, the precursors of the systematic works of the present time. As zoologies of this third class do not make their appearance before the beginning of the eighteenth century, we shall look in vain for any systematic treatment of the subject under consideration in advance of that time.

In the two centuries, 1553-1758, the whale fishery received the largest share of attention. Discussions of the identity of the unicorn, involving descriptions of the Narwhal, occupy the next place, while little less extensive were the inquiries regarding the origin of ambergris and the nature of the whale which swallowed Jonah. The industrial treatises cover nearly the whole period, but those on the unicorn seem to have had their origin about the middle of the seventeenth century, and those on ambergris and on Jonah's whale in the later decades of that century.

None of the early naturalists, such as Rondelet (1554), Gesner (1551), or Belon (1551), made any reference to the observations of the American explorers or to American cetaceans in any wise. American cetology opens in 1590 with Acosta's fable of the Florida Indians, who, as he learned from "some expert men," captured whales by driving plugs into their blowholes.' This fable was repeated by De Bry in 1602, who published a plate showing the Indians engaged in this marvellous whale fishery. Lescarbot quotes from Acosta in 16093 and Nieremberg also tells the story in 1635, but seems inclined to discredit it. Du Tetre also repeats it in 1667.

Rochefort's Natural History of the Antilles, published in 1658, contains the next reference to baleen whales in North American waters. A translation of his remarks has already been given on p. 30. Though his description is far from satisfactory, it seems to have reference to some species of Finback whale. This is the more probable as Du Tetre in his History of the Antilles, published in 1667, has a fuller description under the same heading, as we have already seen in the preceding chapter, pp. 30, 31.

Eighteenth Century.

In 1703, La Hontan, in his New Voyages to North America, enumerates

(1) "Balenots, or little whales"; (2) "a fish almost as big as a whale, called

1

'ACOSTA, J., Hist. nat. y moral de las Indias, Seville, 1590, pp. 158-162.

'DE BRY, T., Idæa vera et genuina, Præcipuarum Historiarum omnium, ut et variorum Rituum, Ceremoniarum (etc.) gentis Indicæ, Frankfort, 1602, pl. 1.

'Nova Francia. English ed., 1609, p. 269.

'NIEREMBERG, J. E., Historia naturæ, Antwerp, 1635, p. 261.

Souffleur"; and (3) "white porpoises," among the fishes of the St. Lawrence River. His descriptions of these, which are extremely unsatisfactory, are as follows:

"The Balenot is a sort of a whale, only 't is less and more fleshy, and does not yield Oil in proportion to the Northern Whales. This Fish goes fifty or sixty Leagues up the River.

"The Souffleurs are much of the same size, only they are shorter and blacker, When they mean to take breath after diving, they squirt out the water through a hole behind their Head, after the same manner with the Whales. Commonly. they dog the Ships in the River of St. Laurence.

"The White Porpoises are as big as Oxen. They always go along with the Current; and go up with the tide till they come at fresh water, upon which they retire with the ebb water. They are a ghastly sort of Animals, and are frequently taken before Quebec."

1

The "white porpoise" is, of course, the Beluga, or White whale, Delphinap terus, but the others are not certainly recognizable.

Charlevoix published a few notes on the whales found in the St. Lawrence in his History and General Description of New France, the most important of which is the following: "I have remarked in my Journal that having been at anchor in 1705 at the end of the month of August near Tadoussac, about 15 leagues above Matave, I have seen 4 of them [i. e., whales] at the same time playing around our vessel, and approaching in such manner that one might have touched them with the oars; but it is principally on the coasts of Acadie that the fishing offers an inexhaustible fund for commerce." 2

In 1709 Lawson, in his natural history of the Carolinas, makes mention for the first time of whales in those waters, but his account is vague and far from satisfactory. His list includes "whales, several sorts"; "crampois [grampus]"; "bottlenoses," and porpoises. He remarks: "Whales are very numerous on the coast of North Carolina, from which they make Oil, Bone, etc. to the great Advantage of those inhabiting the Sand Banks, along the Ocean, where these whales come ashore, none being struck or kill'd with a Harpoon in this Place, as they are to the Northward, or elsewhere." 3

Lawson's descriptions of the various kinds of whales are uncritical and confused. He says:

"Of these Monsters, there are four sorts; the first, which is most choice and rich, is the Sperma Cati whale, from which the Sperma Cati is taken. These are rich Prizes; but I never heard but of one found on this Coast, which was near CurrituckInlet [North Carolina].

"The other sorts are of a prodigious Bigness. Of these the Bone and Oil is made; the Oil being the Blubber, or oily Flesh, or Fat of that Fish boil'd. These differ not only in Colour, some being pied, others not, but very much in 'LA HONTAN, New Voyages to North America, London, 1703, p. 244.

2

2 CHARLEVOIX, P. F. X. DE, Histoire et Description générale de la Nouvelle France, 2, 1744, p. 389. 'LAWSON, JOHN, The History of Carolina, London, 1714, p. 153. This is the 2d ed. The first published in 1709, I have not seen. Allen states that the two editions are textually identical.

shape, one being call'd a Bottle-Nosed Whale, the other a Shovel-Nose [shark?], which is as different as a Salmon from a Sturgeon.

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"There is another sort of these Whales, or great Fish, though not common. never knew of above one of that sort, found on the Coast of North Carolina, and he was contrary, in Shape, to all others ever found before him, being sixty Foot in Length, and not above three or four Foot Diameter [Finback?]." 1

1

Lawson includes, without comment, Acosta's story, published more than a century before, of the Florida Indians killing whales by driving plugs into their blowholes.

In Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, the first edition of which was pub lished in 1731-33, we read only that "whales of different species are sometimes cast on shore, as are Grampus's, in storms and hurricanes." 2

Brickell, in 1737, in his Natural History of North Carolina, repeats parts of Lawson (1709) word for word, with some unimportant additions of his own.”

4

In 1725 we meet with the first original account of the whales of New England by an American colonist. This contribution, entitled "An Essay upon the Natural History of Whales," was written by Paul Dudley, Chief-Justice of Massachusetts, who was at once a jurist, a theologian, and a naturalist. He probably had little acquaintance with the subject from his own observation, and took his information at second or even at third hand. He tells us that he was informed as regards ambergris by a Mr. Atkins of Boston, a practical whaler, "one of the first that went out a fishing for the Sperma Ceti whales," and that on the other topics he had the assistance of Mr. J. Coffin of Nantucket and Rev. Mr. Greenleafe of Yarmouth.

Dudley's essay, on account of the amount of original and generally accurate information it contains, deserves to take rank with those of Martens, Sibbald, Scoresby, and Zorgdrager. It is not a systematic treatise, but the several kinds of whales occurring on the New England coast are named and briefly described, with notes on their habits, reproduction, and other matters. The whales mentioned are: (1) "The Right, or Whalebone Whale"; (2) "The Scrag Whale"; (3) "The Finback Whale;" (4) "The Bunch, or Humpback Whale"; (5) "The Sperma Ceti Whale."

All of these are recognizable and have been assigned to their proper places generically, except the "Scrag" whale, which is, and always has been, a stumblingblock to cetology. It was accepted, without criticism, as a separate species by Klein, Anderson, and other writers. In 1869, Nathaniel E. Atwood, a practical fisherman, and a well educated and observant man, who resided for many years at Provincetown, Mass., stated that the whalers there recognized a "Scrag" whale, but regarded it as the young of the Right whale. Scammon remarks: "Our 'Op. cit., pp. 153-154. Lawson was Surveyor-General of North Carolina.

'This is from the edition of 1743, vol. 2, p. xxxii, which, however, appears not to differ from the original edition.

3

'BRICKELL, J., The Natural History of North Carolina, 1737, pp. 215–226.

'Philos. Trans., 33, No. 387, Mch. and Apr., 1725, pp. 256-269.

* ALLEN, J. A., Catalogue of the Mammals of Massachusetts. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 1, No. 8,

1869, p. 203.

308342

observations make it certain that there is a 'Scrag' Right whale in the North Pacific which corresponds very nearly to that of the southern ocean." 1 Macy, in his History of Nantucket, informs us that it was the appearance of "a whale of the kind called Scragg" in the harbor there which led to the establishment of the whale fishery on that island."

From these three observations it is evident that the term "scrag" is regularly included in the whaleman's vocabulary. That there is a separate species to which the name applies is improbable, but it is still uncertain whether it merely characterizes abnormal individuals of the various species of Right whales, or definite varieties of one or more species of Right whales, or abnormal individuals of the large whales generally. The word "scrag," of course, means emaciated, ill-favored, or rough and crooked. Further reference to this subject will be made later on.

In 1741, we have for the first time, in Klein's Historia Piscium, a summing up by a systematist of the American observations prior to that date. His classifi cation is somewhat artificial and his nomenclature rather unsystematic. His synoptic table, in so far as it applies to the large whales, is as follows:

I. Edentulæ

Physeteres { I Balænæ

II. Dentatæ

1. In Dorso lævi apinnes.
2. In Dorso gibbo apinnes.
3. In Dorso pinnatæ.
1. Dorso lævi apinnes.
2. Dorso lævi pinnatæ.
3. Dorso gibbo apinnes.
4. Dorso gibbo pinnatæ.

The various species enumerated are as follows:

BALENE EDENTULE.

In Dorso lævi apinnes.

1. Balana vera Zorgdrageri. [ = Bowhead.]

2. Balæna albicans; Weisfish Martensii & Zorgdr. [= White whale.]
3. Balana glacialis; ita communiter: Eisfisch.

a. Australis; Zud-Eisfisch; dorso valde depresso, Zorgdrageri.
b. Occidentalis; West-Eisfisch; dorso minus depresso, Ejusdem.
c. Borealis; Nordkaper, Ejusdem. [= Atlantic Right whale.]

In Dorso gibbo apinnes.

1. Gibbo unico prope caudam. Anglis: The Bunch or Humbak Whale

=

Fin

fisch. Vid. Transact. Phil. Vol. XXXIII. No. 387. P. 258. [ Humpback whale of Dudley.]

2. Gibbis vel Nodis sex. Balana macra. Anglis: Scrag-Whale...

Trans., ibid. [ = Scrag whale of Dudley].

In Dorso pinnatæ.

1. Ore Balænæ vulgaris, laminis corneis donato.

Phil.

Phil. Trans. al. l.

a. Balæna edentula, corpoire strictiore, dorso pinnato Raji. Finfish Zorgdr.
Physeter Gesn. Anglis. Finbak-Whale.
[Includes the Finback of Dudley.]

b. Fubartes; Balæna novæ Angliæ. [The Bermuda Humpback of the anony-
mous writer in Philos. Trans., I, 1665, pp. 11-13.]

2. Ore rostrato. [Not American.]

'SCAMMON, C. M., Marine Mammals, 1874, p. 67.

'MACY, O., History of Nantucket, 1835, p. 28.

'KLEIN, J. T., Historia Piscium naturalis, pt. 2, 1741, pp. 9–16.

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