The fourth sort is the sword-fish, so called from a long and broad bone,
which grows out of the end of his snout on both sides, indented like a
saw. He has got two fins upon his back, and four under the belly, on
each side two: those on the back are the largest; those under the belly
are placed just under the first of the back: his tail broad and flat
underneath, and above pointed, but not split or cloved. From the
hindermost fin of the back he grows smaller: his nostrils are of an
oblong shape: the eyes are placed on the top of his head, just above his
mouth. There are different sizes of sword-fish, some of twenty feet,
some more, some less. This is the greatest enemy the true whale has to
deal with, who gives him fierce battles; and, having vanquished and
killed him, he contents himself with eating the tongue of the whale,
leaving the rest of the huge carcase for the prey and spoils of the
morses and sea birds.
The cachelot or pot-fish is a fifth species of whales, whose shape is
somewhat different from that of other whales, in that the upper part of
his head or skull is much bigger and stronger built; his spouts or pipes
are placed on the forehead, whereas other whales have them on the
hinder part of the head: his under jaw is armed with a row of teeth
which are but short: his tongue is thin and pointed, and of a yellowish
colour: he has but one eye on the side of the head, which makes him of
easy access to the Greenlanders, who attack him on his blind side. Of
his skull that wrongly so called spermaceti is prepared, one yielding
twenty to twenty-four tuns thereof. The rest of the body and the tail
are like unto those of other whales. He is of a brownish colour on the
back, and white under the belly: he is of different sizes, from fifty to
seventy feet long.
Then comes the white fish, whose shape is not unlike that of the great
bay whale, having no fins upon the back, but underneath two large ones;
the tail like a whale; his spouts, through which he breathes and throws
out the water, are the same; he has likewise a bunch on the head: his
colour is of a fading yellow; he is commonly from twelve to sixteen feet
in length, and is exceeding fat. The train of his blubber is as clear as
the clearest oil: his flesh as well as the fat has no bad taste, and
when it is marinated with vinegar and salt, it is as well tasted as any
pork whatsoever. The fins also and the tail, pickled or sauced, are good
eating. This fish is so far from being shy, that whole droves are seen
about the ships at sea: the Greenlanders catch numbers of them, of which
they make grand cheer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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