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Show 546 MR. R. BROWN ON THE CETACEANS [Nov. 12, as the Island of Jan Mayen (71° N. lat.), round which they were so numerous in the palmy days of the Dutch whaling trade. I am not quite sure, after all that has been said on this subject, that the Whale is getting extinct, and am beginning to entertain convictions that its supposed scarcity in recent times is a great deal owing to its escaping to remote, less known, and less visited localities. It is said to be coming back again to the coast of Greenland, now that the hot pursuit of it has slackened in that portion of Davis Strait. The varying success of the trade is owing not so much to the want of Whales as to the ill luck of the vessels in coming across their haunts. Every now and again cargoes equal to anything that was obtained in the best days of the trade are obtained. Only seven years ago I came home to England "shipmates" (as the phrase goes) with no less than thirty Right Whales, in addition to a miscellaneous menagerie of Arctic animals dead and alive, and a motley human crew-a company so outre that I question if ever naturalist, or even whaler, sailed with the like before. (e) Economic value.-After the very excellent account of Scoresby, it would be mere pleonasm on my part to say one word regarding the commercial importance of the Whale. The introduction of steam, the almost universal use of the gun-harpoon, and the discoveries of Ross and Parry on the western shores of Davis Strait have greatly altered the nature of the "Strait fishery" since Scoresby's time. For this reason I have given the outline of a whaler's summer cruise, more especially as it illustrates, according to m y observation, the range and migrations of the Right Whale. (Hi) Varieties of Balaena mysticetus.-The whalers do not recognize any varieties of the Right Whale by specific names, nor do I of m y own knowledge know of any entitled to that rank. Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt* consider that there is a second species of Right Whale found in the Greenland and northern seas, the " Nord-caper" (Baleena nordcaper, Bonnat.; Baleena islandica, Briss., &c), the "Sletbag" of the Icelanders, and that the following facts have been ascertained regarding it:-1st, that it is much more active than the Greenland Whale, much quicker and more violent in its movements, and accordingly both more difficult and dangerous to capture; 2nd, that it is smaller (it being, however, impossible to give an exact statement of its length) and has much less blubber; 3rd, that its head is shorter, and that its whalebone is comparatively small and scarcely more than half the length of that of the B. mysticetus ; 4th, that it is regularly infested with a cirriped belonging to the genus Coronula, and that it belongs to the temperate North Atlantic as exclusively as the B. mysticetus belongs to the icy sea, so that it must be considered exceptional when either of them strays into the range of the other. Moreover they considered that in its native seas it was to be found further towards the south in the winter (viz. in the Bay of Biscay, and near the coast of North America down to Cape Cod), while in the summer it roved about in the sea around Iceland and between this island and the most northerly * Loc. cit. |