William Thompson, The Natural History of Ireland… (1856)
“ From many experiments he brought the operationto such perfection, that for some years he never missed a whale, nor failed of holding her by the harpoon : he had for some time ill success, from firing when too near, for the harpoon does not then fly true, but at 14 or 15 yards' distance, which is what he would choose, it flies straight; has killed several at 25 yards. ”
William Thompson, The Natural History of Ireland… (1856)
“ Nor is the kind of whale-fish that affords the true spermaceti a stranger to the coast of Ireland that respects America. This we may properly,I think, call the Cetus dentatus, from its large solid white teeth fixed only in the lower jaw, to distinguish it from the species that gives the whalebone of which kind likewise there have been three or four stranded in my time, but on the eastern coast of this country that regards England.There have been three of this kind [Cetus dentatus] taken to my knowledge in the space of the six years, all on the western coast of this country ”
William Thompson, The Natural History of Ireland… (1856)
“ I have been the more particular in giving an account of this undertaking, because the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. in London has long sincegiven premiums for the invention of the gun-harpoon, supposing it to be original."P. 157. ”
