As for other sea monsters and wonderful animals, we find in Tormoder’s
History of Greenland, mention made of three sorts of monsters, where he
quotes a book, called “Speculum Regale Iclandicum;” or, the Royal Island
Looking-Glass, from whence he borrows what he relates[29]. But none of
them have been seen by us, or any of our time, that ever I could hear,
save that most dreadful monster, that showed itself upon the surface of
the water in the year 1734, off our new colony in 64°. This monster was
of so huge a size, that coming out of the water, its head reached as
high as the mast-head; its body was as bulky as the ship, and three or
four times as long. It had a long pointed snout, and spouted like a
whale fish; great broad paws, and the body seemed covered with shell
work, its skin very rugged and uneven. The under part of its body was
shaped like an enormous huge serpent, and when it dived again under
water, it plunged backwards into the sea, and so raised its tail aloft,
which seemed a whole ship’s length distant from the bulkiest part of the
body.
_Of other Fishes._
Of fishes properly so called, the Greenland sea has abundance and of
great diversity, of which the largest is called Hay, whose flesh is much
like that of the halibut, and is cured in the same manner; being cut
into long slices, and hung up to be dried in the sun and in the air, as
they cure them in the Northern parts of Norway; but the Greenlanders do
not much care for it; its flesh being of a much coarser grain than that
of the halibut. This fish has two fins on the back, and six under the
belly; the two foremost are the longest, and have the shape of a tongue:
the other two middlemost are somewhat broader than the rest, and the
hindermost couple near the tail are alike broad before and behind, but
shorter than the middlemost: his tail resembles that of the sword fish.
There are no bones in him, but gristles only. He has a long snout, under
which the mouth is placed like that of the sword fish: he has three rows
of sharp pointed teeth; his skin is hard and prickly, of a greyish hue;
his length is two or three fathom; he has a great liver, of which they
make train oil, the biggest of which makes two or three lasts. It is a
fish of prey, bites large pieces out of the whale’s body, and is very
greedy after man’s flesh: he cannot be caught with lines made of hemp,
for with his sharp teeth he snaps it off; but with iron chains. And the
larger sort are taken with harpoons, as we do the whales. The rest of
fishes that haunt the Greenland seas are the halibut, torbut, codfish,
haddock, scate, small salmon, or sea-trout of different kinds and sizes
(the large salmon not being so frequent in Greenland); and these are
very fat and good; they are found in all inlets, and mouths of rivers.
Cat-fish is the most common food of Greenlanders, insomuch, that when
all other things fail, the cat-fish must hold out, of which there are
abundance, both winter and summer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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