xii NEOBALAENA 361 



partly by the water which they throw out by a conduit which 

 they possess in the middle of the forehead." Several boats then 

 set out in pursuit, some of which were reserved for men whose 

 sole duty it was to pick out of the water their comrades who 

 had overbalanced themselves in their excitement. The harpoons 

 bore a mark by which their respective owners could recognise 

 them, and the carcase of the animal was shared in accordance 

 with the numbers and owners of the harpoons found sticking in 

 the dead body of the Whale. At this period the fishery was at 

 its height. But it continued to be an occupation along those 

 shores until the beginning of the eighteenth century, after which 

 it gradually declined. The fishery of Whales began to be carried 

 farther afield than the shore, and for a long time the Basques 

 furnished expert harpooners to whaling vessels proceeding to the 

 Arctic seas. A curious example of the continuance of the fishery 

 until at least 1712 is given by Sir C. Markham. In the parish 

 records of Lequeito for that year, it is noted that a couple were 

 married who possessed between them all the necessary outfit for 

 a whaling cruise. 



The genus Neobcdaena is interesting from more than one 

 point of view. Its size compared with its gigantic relatives is 

 small, some 16 or 17 feet. The genus bears the same kind of 

 proportion to Balaena that Kogia does to Physeter among the 

 Physeteridae. It is one of those Whales which are very restricted 

 in habitat ; up to the present it is only known from the Antarctic 

 region in the neighbourhood of New Zealand and South Australia. 

 Structurally it is in a few points intermediate between the Eight 

 Whales and the Eorquals. The head is proportionately (as well 

 as, of course, actually) not so large as in Balaena. There is a 

 falcate dorsal fin ; but the head in outline is not Eorqual-like in 

 spite of its similar proportions. The whalebone is long. The 

 throat is not grooved. Neolalaena has forty-three vertebrae, of 

 which the cervicals are all fused. There are as many as seventeen 

 or eighteen dorsal vertebrae, the largest number in any Cetacean 

 as far as is known. With these are articulated not eighteen but 

 only seventeen ribs. The first dorsal vertebra appears to be with- 

 out a rib. The ribs are very broad and flat. The body thus 

 gets an appearance of a Sirenian. The lumbar vertebrae are 

 fewer than in any other Cetacean, being only two. The scapula 

 is more like that of the Eorquals than that of the Eight Whales ; 



