498 DR W. S. BRUCK 



the sea. The presence of Euphausia, which are themselves phosphorescent, is also a 

 sign that general conditions are favourable to the presence of whales ; in short, any 

 sign, direct or indirect, of a plentiful food supply both for whales and birds is signifi- 

 cant. Mr RACOVITZA throws doubt on my statement that myriads of Cape pigeons 

 and thousands of fanners were seen on December 16, 1892, in latitude 59 24' S., longi- 

 tude 50 Ol' W. Twenty years later this statement is more than vindicated by Mr 

 THEODORE E. SALVESEN * reporting that nearly eleven thousand whales were killed 

 and captured in that same region from " 1st November 1912 till the end of April 

 1913," even after several years' hunting. The previous season seven thousand whales 

 were taken at South Georgia alone. The sight of these whales and birds in December 

 1SD2 will for ever remain one of the most vivid of my Antarctic recollections. 

 Whales' backs and blasts were seen at close intervals quite near to the ship, and 

 from horizon to horizon, while Cape pigeons were tumbling over each other after 

 small pieces of fat thrown over the ship's side, just as do fulmar petrels after scraps of 

 whale fat in the northern hemisphere. These Cape pigeons were captured with an 

 ordinary hand landing-net over the side of the ship in such numbers that our 

 crew of forty -seven hands were furnished with a very full supply of " scouce." f 

 The sea was swarming with Euphausia. This host of animal life in Antarctic seas 

 is surely no more impossible than a swarm of locusts, an army of lemmings, or a 

 flock of owls. 



It will be noted that on January 26, 1893, I recorded seeing a white finuer 

 (Bal&noptera musculus). Doubt has been thrown on this observation of mine, but 

 I have recently seen a photograph of a piebald humpback whale that was landed in 

 South Georgia, and am told that this is not a solitary example, and that white hump- 

 backs have also been taken there. I now have the additional satisfaction of present- 

 ing herewith an excellent photograph (Plate II.) of a piebald Nordkapper (Baliena 

 biscayensis) which was taken, and lent to me for reproduction, by the well-known 

 author Mr J. J. BELL. Mr BELL tells me that out of a dozen whales lie saw captured 

 in the Atlantic, near St Kilda, about seven years ago, " several were piebald.' 



< i/obiocephalus species ? 



On the 22nd November 1892, on board the Baliena in 40 Ol' S., 48 55' W., I 

 record: " Very green sea. Whales and seaweed. Globiocephalus." These are also 

 recorded by BURN MURDOCH, \ with the accompanying black-and-white sketch. On 

 November 24 he describes them thus : " We saw many hundreds of small whales 

 or porpoises the night before this last gale. They came up from the N.W., and 



* Vide Vol. IV., Part XIX. Special reference should also be made, not only to Mr THEODORE E. SALVESEN'S 

 account of "The Whale Fisheries of the Falkland Islands and their Dependencies" in this volume, but also to his 

 article entitled " The Whaling Industry of To-day," in The Scottish Hunkers' Magazine, vol. iv., No. 14, July 1912, 

 pp. 109-119. 



t A whaler's term for a thick stew resembling jugged hare, made of guillemots, penguins, etc. 



J From Edinburgh to the Antarctic, by W. Q. BURN MURDOCH, pp. 141-142. 



