WHALING IN SCOTLAND FOR 1907 67 



whalers in 1892 l did not meet the Atlantic Right Whale; 

 nor is it mentioned among those described by Dr. Wilson 

 in the " Natural History (Vertebrata) of the Voyage of the 

 ' Discovery. ' I am informed by Norwegians that it is to 

 be met with near the South Shetlands. I take it that 

 Balcena biscayensis is the same as B. attstralis, which Mr. 

 Beddard seems to think the case. It is probable that it 

 keeps clear of the ice. 



But it is the migration of whales in the Northern 

 Hemisphere, and especially in our own seas, to which I 

 want to call attention. 



BAL^NA BISCAYENSIS. 



This year the Buneveneader station has got 24 of these 

 whales. None have been got at any of the Shetland 

 stations, though, as I mentioned in the " Annals " for 

 January 1907, one was got by a Faroe whaler 50 miles 

 west of Shetland in 1903. In 1906 this Harris station 

 got 6 of these whales. They seem to pass about a degree 

 west of St. Kilda and the Flannen Islands to Iceland, Saxa 

 Fjord and Brede Fjord on the west coast being favourite 

 resorts for them ; in the latter 1 4 were once got in one 

 season. 2 From there they are supposed to pass down 

 the Western Atlantic to Bermuda, where many winter, 

 but probably many go farther south. From there it seems 

 as if they worked northward again, till in summer they once 

 more passed west of St. Kilda. Goldsberg says one was 

 shot on the Arctic coast of Norway, and that old bones 

 have been found at Finmark. Hjort says they must at one 

 time have gone to Norway, probably following the course 

 of the Blue Whale, B. sibbaldii. One Norwegian name for 

 this whale is the " Gulf Stream Right Whale." I can only 

 hear of one of these whales having been killed off the 

 Faroes. 



PHYSETER MACROCEPHALUS. 



This last season Bunaveneader station got 4 Sperm 

 Whales. Olna station got 6. This shows that these 



1 W. G. Burn-Murdoch, "From Edinburgh to the Antarctic." 

 2 "A Book of Whales," p. 133. 



