Book contents
- Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- PART THE FIRST VOYAGE INTO SPITZBERGEN AND GREENLAND
- PART THE SECOND CONTAINING THE DESCRIPTION OF SPITZBERGEN
- PART THE THIRD
- PART THE FOURTH OF THE ANIMALS OF SPITZBERGEN
- CHAP. I Of Birds with Toes or Divided Feet
- CHAP. II Of the Broad or Web-Footed Birds
- CHAP. III Of some other Birds that I did not Catch or Delineate
- CHAP. IV Of the Four-Footed Creatures
- CHAP. V Of the Crustaceous Fish that I Observed
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII Of the Whale
- CHAP. VIII How they Catch the Whale
- CHAP. IX What they do with the Dead Whale
- CHAP. X Of the Trying out of the Train-Oyl from the Fat
- CHAPTER XI Of the Finn-Fish
- CHAP. XII Of Rotz-fishes and Sea-qualms
- LIST OF THE ANIMALS OF SPITZBERGEN
- DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND
- INDEX
- Plate section
CHAPTER XI - Of the Finn-Fish
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- PART THE FIRST VOYAGE INTO SPITZBERGEN AND GREENLAND
- PART THE SECOND CONTAINING THE DESCRIPTION OF SPITZBERGEN
- PART THE THIRD
- PART THE FOURTH OF THE ANIMALS OF SPITZBERGEN
- CHAP. I Of Birds with Toes or Divided Feet
- CHAP. II Of the Broad or Web-Footed Birds
- CHAP. III Of some other Birds that I did not Catch or Delineate
- CHAP. IV Of the Four-Footed Creatures
- CHAP. V Of the Crustaceous Fish that I Observed
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII Of the Whale
- CHAP. VIII How they Catch the Whale
- CHAP. IX What they do with the Dead Whale
- CHAP. X Of the Trying out of the Train-Oyl from the Fat
- CHAPTER XI Of the Finn-Fish
- CHAP. XII Of Rotz-fishes and Sea-qualms
- LIST OF THE ANIMALS OF SPITZBERGEN
- DESCRIPTION OF GREENLAND
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
Thefinn-fish is of the length of a whale, but in bulk the whale is three times as big. They know the finn-fish by the finns that are upon his back, near unto his tail, and also by his vehement blowing and spouting up of the water, which the whale doth not do. His knob on the head is split in length, that is at his blowing hole, through which he forces up the water higher than the whale, and with more fierceness, which is not so high as that of the whale, neither is the back bended or dented in so much. His lips are of a brownish colour, and like a twisted rope. On his upper lip the whalebone hangs as it doth on the whale; but whether he doth open and shut his mouth there are different opinions: some believe that he cannot open his mouth, yet this is not true; but he doth not always run open mouth'd, that the whalebone may not hang out of his mouth at the sides as it doth in whales, or else he can open his mouth if he pleases.
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- A Collection of Documents on Spitzbergen and GreenlandComprising a Translation from F. Martens' Voyage to Spitzbergen, a Translation from Isaac de La Peyrère's Histoire du Groenland, and God's Power and Providence in the Preservation of Eight Men, pp. 132 - 134Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010