14 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



MEGAPTERA LONGIMANA (Humpback Knol) 



The Olna station got 2 bulls, 42 and 41 feet, and i cow of 43 

 feet. Buneveneader station, 2 bulls, both 32 feet, the girth of which 

 is given as 20 and 21 feet. 



These whales live on shrimps and are of a very savage nature. 

 They are by no means common. I have records of only seventeen 

 having been killed in Shetland in four years. 



PHYSETER MACROCEPHALUS (Sperm Whale) 



The one got off the Flannen Islands by the Buneveneader 

 Company was a large bull 68 feet long, the girth is given at 33 feet. 

 I regret not having been informed as to the contents of the stomach, 

 they are such omnivorous creatures. 



HYPEROODON DIODON \_ = H. rostratuni\ (Bottle-nose) 



There are plenty of these whales round Shetland, but they are 

 not fired at by the whalers on account of their small size. The one 

 killed at Olna was a bull of 26^ feet. Hjort gives the length at 20 

 to 25 feet. The oil is as valuable as sperm oil. In Norway this 

 is a separate fishery conducted in sailing craft with small harpoons. 



A Norwegian gentleman suggests a reason for the grooves in 

 the thorax of the Balaenophorae and Megaptera. In Norway they 

 have grooves in the ski to give a better grip of the snow and to 

 make them go faster. It is possible that these whales have grooves 

 to enable them to travel faster through the water. 1 



The herring fishermen and curers are making a great outcry 

 about whaling ruining the herring fishing. It is difficult to reconcile 

 this statement with the fact that the last three years have been the 

 finest herring years on record : 



i93 309,909 crans. 



I 94 . 543> 2 4 



J 95 . 645,834 



1906 . . 455,000 



1 I suggested the same in different terms, viz. that these grooves are 

 "sluices" to allow the resisting water to pass; and that if no such grooves 

 existed on the under surfaces of the animals, the resistance to their progress, as 

 bottom-feeders, would affect the quantities of their food, and prevent it reaching 

 their mouths, the weight of water being diverted to either side ; besides the 

 great pressure also would affect the progress of the huge animals through the water. 

 Perhaps additional probability may be lent to the theory here advanced by quite 

 recent discoveries made in ship-building by Mr. William Peterson of Newcastle, 

 which is thus described : " His design is for a groove of about 3 feet from edge 

 to edge, and a foot in depth, to run from the bows alongside a ship. In this 

 hollow, it is claimed, the spiral energy of the waves cast up when the bow cleaves 

 the water, etc.," causes increased speed with less coal or driving power. Has Mr. 

 William Peterson thus taken the lesson from Nature ! ? J. A. H.-B. 



