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Show 1882.] CAPT. D. GRAY ON THE BOTTLENOSE WHALE. 727 Farewell, all round Iceland, north along the Greenland ice to 77° north lat. ; also along the west coast of Spitzbergen and east to Cherry Island, in lat. 72° north and long. 19° east. Beyond these limits I have never seen them ; but doubtless they are to be found as far as the Straits of Belle Isle on the west, and east to Nova Zembla. From the fact that they are not seen in summer further south than a day's sail from the ice, it would appear that they migrate south in the autumn, and north again in the spring. They are gregarious in their habits, going in herds of from four to ten. It is rare to see more than the latter number together, although many different herds are frequently in sight at the same time. The adult males very often go by themselves; but young bulls, cows and calves, with an old male as a leader, are sometimes seen together. They are very unsuspicious, coming close alongside the ship, round about and underneath the boats, until their curiosity is satisfied. The herd never leaves a wounded companion so long as it is alive ; but they desert it immediately when dead ; and if another can be harpooned before the previous struck one is killed, we often capture the whole herd, frequently taking ten, and on one occasion fifteen, before the hold of them was lost. They come from every point of the compass towards the struck one in the most mysterious manner. They have great endurance, and are very difficult to kill, seldom taking out less than from three to four hundred fathoms of line ; and strong full-grown males will run out seven hundred fathoms, remaining under water for the long period of two hours, coming to the surface again as fresh as if they had never been away; and if they are relieved of the weight by the lines being hauled in off them before they receive a second harpoon and a well-placed lance or two, it often takes hours to kill them. They never die without a hard struggle, lashing the sea white about them, leaping out of the water, striking the boats with their tails, running against them with their heads and sometimes staving the planks in, frequently towing two heavy whale-boats about after them with great rapidity. They vary in colour from black in the young to light brown in the older animals. The very old turn almost yellow, the beak and front of the head being quite white, with a white band round their necks; all of them are greyish-white in the belly. Their tails, instead of being notched in the centre as in most other Whales, are round in the middle; and they have great vertical strength in their rump. They can leap many feet out of the water, even having time while in the air to turn round their heads and look about them, taking the water head first, and not falling helplessly into it sideways like the larger Whales. The full-grown Whale is thirty feet long by twenty feet in circumference, and yields two tons of oil besides two hundredweight of spermaceti. It is remarkable that they should yield a |