barrels are full, for everything is done at sea, or when their
limited time is expired and their stores almost expended, they
return home, freighted with their valuable cargo; unless they have
put it on board a vessel for the European market. Such are, as
briefly as I can relate them, the different branches of the economy
practised by these bold navigators, and the method with which they
go such distances from their island to catch this huge game.

The following are the names and principal characteristics of the
various species of whales known to these people:

The St. Lawrence whale, just described.

The disko, or Greenland ditto.

The right whale, or seven feet bone, common on the coasts of this
country, about sixty feet long. The spermaceti whale, found all over
the world, and of all sizes; the longest are sixty feet, and yield
about 100 barrels of oil.

The hump-backs, on the coast of Newfoundland, from forty to seventy
feet in length.

The finn-back, an American whale, never killed, as being too swift.

The sulphur-bottom, river St. Lawrence, ninety foot long; they are
but seldom killed, as being extremely swift.

The grampus, thirty feet long, never killed on the same account.