( 491 ) 



Some Observations on Antarctic Cetacea : Scottish National Antarctic 

 Expedition. By William S. Bruce. LLU., F.R.S.E. (With Two Plates and 

 One Text-figure.) 



I I l.indi-il iii Octnlier -Jl, 1914. Issued squint. -]y Mun-li 31, 1916.) 



The study of the Cetaeea forms one of tlio most interesting and most difficult 

 problems for zoologists, and at the same time one of the most important from the 

 industrial standpoint. 



The main difficult v encountered is the costliness of the investigation, lioth on 

 account of the size of the animals, the difficulty of following out their migrations, 

 and the great commercial value of the products of the carcase: the financial 

 resources of zoologists have so far proved entirclv inadequate to meet the amount 

 of monev required to make whalers devote sutticient time towards assisting them 

 in these important researches. Because, while attending to the requirements 

 of zoologists in handling the animals for anatomical in\ e<t i^at ion. they would lie 

 losing the chance of catching manv other whales each of great commercial value. 



Even an institution like the Natural History Museum (British Museum), though 

 receiving a large annual ( Jovernmeiit grant . has never lieen alile to offer sufficient money 

 to Dundee whalers for the skeleton of a Greenland whale, and is in consequence without 

 an example of it, in spite of the enormous number that have been killed, ever since 

 the foundation of the Museum, bv Scottish and other whalers. The offer of 100 for 

 the skeleton of B<ihvii mysticetus, when the whalebone in its mouth alone was 

 worth L'L'700, only produced a smile on the faces of those hardy Arctic skippers and 

 owners. Even now, with much reduced prices, which have for the time killed the 

 Dundee whaling trade on account of severe competition by Norwegian methods,* a 

 sum many times greater than that would not induce any owner, skipper, or crew to 

 consider the proposal. 



The new Norwegian methods, t however, of fishing whales other than the Green- 

 land or Bowhead whale in almost all seas outside, the limits of, but (dose up to, the 

 compact pack ice of Arctic and Antarctic, seas, which entails hauling the carcases of 

 the whales up on landing slips ashore or alongside large tank ships anchored in a 

 sheltered harbour, have enabled closer investigation to be made during recent 

 vears by trained naturalists; and in view of the fact that detailed investigationB 

 of these southern whales has thus been more possible during the last few years, 

 and that a special effort lias recently been made in this direction by the despatch to 



* "The \Vhale Fisheries of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies, 1 ' by TIIKODORE E. S.U.VKSKN, F.K.S.K. (\\ith 

 ten plates), rl,' 1'iirt XIX. |.p. 47. r ,-4S6. 



t On the return of Mr I'.CHN MCKIMM n and myself fr<>in the Antarctic voyage of 1892-93, in conjunction with 

 ('.iplain LAKSKN and .Mr H. .1. Ili'M,, we endeavoured In rai-i- interest in I'.rilain to develop whale fisheries in 



eiiimec-ticin with the Falkland Nlands and Dependencies, (liir pn.jert, however, wa- not supported hy lin-iin-~ ni.-n. 



Ofbj the Colonial OHice. Ten years la'er C.i|,iain LAKSKN indnred Arsjfiii.ine e.ipilali ; to I ilif "C pania 



Argentina de I'ese.-i " of I'.nenos Aire>, and crerteil ,1 whaling station at S..uih ( leui^ia. \\ nh I'mir \\ lialer-. wlijeli \\-.\- 

 yielded, and is still yieliliii},', nia^nilir.-nl returns. 



