Letter 0915

[fol. 278] Ede. 23 March 1703 Sir I would not neglect to give my respects to you by the Bearer, Mr Urrhart who is very desyrous to be acquainted wt you, and I may presume to intreat the favour he may be admitted to your Lectures at yrous to see the your meetings. he is ane ingenious Gentleman & I doubt not will deserve yt favour now that the learned Mr Hook is deade it is ale his writtings may be published or lost to the Royall Socieitie. I ame very desyrous to see the discourse he had upon the Nautilus. I have written something on that Curious Animal but very at shortage what Mr Hook hath done yt makes me curious to see his in print or M.S. Ther came in alive lately a sperma ceti Whale to Monifreth a small town upon the Coast of Angus the Sperma Ceti was most found in some cellnlds in the head: I gott some of it sent me which did prove very good. I ame inclyned to think this kynd of whale is that which juvenal understood under the name of Balana Breittanica major for that there are as Big Whales of this kinde found in our seas still as of any other kinde & for yt the poet in yt place compareth tho confusethe estate of yt reputed ruch amount ye Romans & heth respect to ye value as well as ye Bigness of yt creature, which upon that account is preferabe to other Whales. [f. 278v] if we take in the adjacent isles belonging to Great Britain wt the Great Island so calld. I find this is as often East on our shore as any other, yea in our Country oftener, and this seemeth to be insinuat by Solinus in his Capter Britannia et Hibernia wher he sayeth of our predires: sors yt Dentribus Mari Nautrium Belluarum insigniunt & visium capulos, now wee cannot find any creatures in our sea so fitt for that use as the teeth of this whale is. yea for any accounts meet wt in Ancient watters it was only in thos seas of ours and the adjacent seas to the British Seas such whales were found upon ys grounds I hold it to be the Balaina Britannia Juvenalis, but I willingly submitt this conjecture to your Judgement of late wee have been bus- & here in making ane Iuvaentario & Repositorie of our Historicall Manuscripts. Some Gentlemen Panlme upon us Records wee cannot acknowledge to be Genuine & cavill at what we have good instructions for, it is lybe our ligue with France will be affected by some here & provento be as ancient as our Historians make it. I shall be glad to have at your leasure ane account of the progress of your Natural History of Jamaica & what else is done by the great Advantures of Naturall history with you or abroad. I wrott by Dr Prestons brother to you & sent you something lately done here. wee long for his returne, hoping to have the Royall Societies transactions by him which wee have not seen for a long time. Wherein I may serve you here your commands shall be very acceptable to Sir Your much obliged & humble servant R Sibbald