Abstract
MY attention was drawn to the Basque Whale-Fishery by observing, during my study of Arctic literature, and especially while editing the voyages of William Baffin, that the first English whaling vessels were in the habit of shipping a boat's crew of Basques to harpoon the whales. I was informed that a whale, the Balæna biscayensis, had frequented the coasts of the Basques provinces from time immemorial; but that it had become nearly extinct in the seventeenth century, when the Basques began to extend their voyages further north, and across the Arctic Circle. Hence the Basques had become dexterous whale-fishers long before any other European people had entered upon that perilous occupation.
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On the Whale Fishery of the Basque Provinces of Spain 1 . Nature 25, 365–368 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/025365b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/025365b0