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Show 974 MR. C. R. MARKHAM ON THE WHALE-FISHERY OF [Dec. 13, tery of whale-fishing. To the sailors of all other nations it was an unknown business, appearing all the more perilous from their lack of knowledge. So it was natural that the hardy and intrepid fishermen from the Cantabrian coast should be in requisition as harponeers as soon as the English and Dutch entered upon the Arctic whale-fishery, early in the seventeenth century. Along with their services, we also borrowed their words. Harpoon is derived from the Basque word Arpoi, the root being ar, " to take quickly." The Basque Harpoinari is a " harponeer." There is a letter still extant at Alcala de Henares, from James I. of England to the king of Spain, dated 1612, in which permission is asked to engage the services, on board English vessels engaged in the Arctic whaling-trade, of Basque sailors skilled in the use of the harpoon. The fact that Basque boats' crews were frequently shipped seems to show that this request was granted. In the whaling fleet fitted out for Spitzbergen in 1613, under the command of Benjamin Joseph, with Baffin on board the general's ship as pilot, 24 Basques were shipped. Orders were given that " they were to be used very kindly and friendly, being strangers and leaving their own country to do us service." The English seem to have adopted the fishing-rules of the Basques, as well as to have benefited by their skill and prowess. Thus we read of an order being given because " the order of the Biscaines is that whoso doth strike the first harping-iron into him, it is his whale, if his iron hold." The Basques went out to attack tbe whales in the offing, while the English got ready for boiling-down. W e read : - " News was brought to us this morning that the Basks had killed a whale ; therefore we hasted to set up our furnaces and coppers, and presently began work ; which we continued, without any want of whales, till our voyage was made " - thanks to the Basques. In another place Baffin calls the Basques " our whale strikers." Of course the English, in due time, learnt to strike the whales themselves ; but the Basques were their instructors ; and it is therefore to this noble race that we owe the foundation of our whaling trade. In travelling along the coast, I found a universal tradition of the whale-fishery ; and often the families of fishermen had the harpoons hanging in their houses, which had been there for generations. They still have occasion to use them when porpoises come within range; and on board one of the Gijon steamers there was a man with unerring aim. But many harpoons hang on the walls as relics of the old whaling days. At Laredo the fishermen brought me a harpoon of peculiar construction. The point was narrow and very slightly barbed ; but there was a hinge halfway up the point, which was kept in line with the shaft by a ring. When the harpoon entered a whale, the ring slipped, the'hinge turned, and the point came at right angles to the shaft, making it impossible for the harpoon to come out again. Baron Nordenskiold informs me that this kind of harpoon is used by the Norwegians to kill the white whales. At Llanes, in Asturias, I found a large palatial house which was |