The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-06-27

Linnaous. So that our dubertus as known
today is the Ftn-back or korqual
On the other hand there are one or two
sperm whales, or cachalots which have dorsal
fms Here Captain John smith = error Is Ap'
parent. He should have known that tho IN.
back proper did not yield spernaaSet, s or
paraoitty as no called 10. None or those nm
backs yield oil To any extent, though some
of them are. considered more palatable than
others.
According 10 Faul Dudley, who wrote the
Natural History OF the Whales in New I'm.
gland" during the early part OF the list
century, the tinbaek Was e9mInqp IN New
by S1Shai Swhaiers {ses IA II 1 Trans TST Wi Wis
The finbaok then, formerly known as tho
iubarta or jubartes, Is the ono described py
Linnaeus under the name OF Baiaena boopss
and Balaenoptera Boops, though cope ana
Scammon have made other changes. IL - me
name, however, retained by Packard IN his
work on Zoology, and by which our hnback
Is chiefly known. Scammou describes Two
fnback whales with large dorsal fins.
The whale has boon known from time I'M
memorial as the fish royal, In old times We
learn that, whom whale happened 10 DO
stranded, the king and the queen OF the coun
try, on the shore of which IL was found.
claimed the animal as spoil and divided II
between them; the king taking tho heau,
and the queon the tail. As it was rare for
whale 10 be thus taken, the animal became
sort Of notsam and jotsam, constituting
part OF the royal revenues. From this CUSTOM
IL Is believed, arose tho practice OF calling the
whale tho royal fish. BE this as IL may, great
confusion has existed up 20 very recent
period in the classification OF the various
species of tho whale family.
Josselyn, however, IN his 1.-TWO Voyages.
(p. l04) thus explains the expression, who says,
when he speaks of the various fishes found IN
New England 81 shall begin with the whale
a royal fish. IA all fishes Of extraordinary size
are accounted" He elsewhere applies the
same term TO tho sturgeon; and another
author, believe, TO the porpoiSe 80 too IN
the Charter OF MASSACHUSETTS, Bay Tor Iosl
the Inhabitants or that Colony. We road,
that they were permitted 10 take 'all fishes,
royal fishes, whales balene And 80 WIN
the Hudson Bay Charter, and the Charters OF
tho other English Colonies in America But
whether the title OF royal was applied hrst TO
tho hnback, because OF his gallant bearing,
and AZ he is the largest and hercest OF the
whale kind, we are only able 20 surmise. But,
when we consider the state OF confusion In
which Zoology, was before the time or LIN.
naeus. IL would not be at all surprising Tor
writers TO fall into inconsistencies ant mac
curacio3 from which, as has been r. marked,
Captain smith was not himself exempt ana
the species OF cachalot, which has small
dorsal fin, might be very and easily Sassed
with the jubarta.
Hence, from the Investigations thus far
made, sufficient evidence has been obtained
to show. that our Jubartes, whose name 20.
day exists but in doubly corrupt form, ana
then only In the eftcte Charter Of dead KING,
was "A rorqual, the Finback of whalers (B.
Boops), and inbabiting the waters OF the
northern Atlantic. The Finback was known
as far back, at least, as 1896, being mentioned
in Pinkerton's Voyages ana Travels.
After writing the above, DR.. Clark ran
across Professor j. Hammond Trumbull' IS
letter TO Professor Baird, the context of
which was published in The NEWS a
/ short time ago.
These articles seem to have about ex-
hausted the dubertus disc resion, and with
Editor Arnold of the Register THE
NEWS thinks the perplexing question
ought to be considered settled.
The reason why THE NEWS took 1t up
at this time was because statesmen and
men OF letters, as well as many Others in
all walks in life, had been appealed to,
and given 1t up.