NEWFOUNDLAND FIN WHALE FISHING IN 1905 195 



the avoidance of the shore would account for their presence 

 in the North Atlantic having remained so long undetected. 



Mr. Haldane throws some fresh light on a long-debated 

 subject the position assumed by whales in the act of coition. 

 Few opportunities present themselves of witnessing this 

 act, the earliest account known to the writer, and seemingly 

 the most probable, is that given by Paul Dudley in the 

 "Philosophical Trans." (No. 387, p. 256, 1725), who says, 

 " Whales generate like neat cattle. . . . When the cow takes 

 the bull, she throws herself upon her back, sinking her tail, 

 and so the bull slides up, she then clasps him with her fins." 

 Anderson (1746) favours an upright position, in which he 

 is followed by Pontoppiden (1752). Dr. Robert Brown 

 ("P.Z.S.," 1868) states that the Polar Whale couples "in an 

 upright and not in a recumbent position," and adds that, 

 " in the month of August he has seen them in that position, 

 with the pectoral fins depressed against each other's bodies, 

 and the male lashing the water with his tail," apparently a 

 rather difficult feat for him to perform, as in an upright 

 position one would imagine his tail must be deeply sub- 

 merged. In reply to my inquiries, my friend the late Capt. 

 David Gray told me that, in the course of his long experi- 

 ence, he had only witnessed the complete operation three 

 times, not for want of opportunities, but that their pre- 

 occupation renders them at that time easy of approach, and 

 they fall a ready prey to the boats ; his description of what 

 followed agrees in the main with that of Paul Dudley's and 

 Mr. Haldane's informants. "There is a great deal of hob- 

 nobbing," says Mr. Gray, " to go through, the male rubbing 

 against the female and thrashing the water with his tail, at 

 last the female turns on her back near the surface, and the 

 pair clasp each other firmly with their fins, the male's tail 

 working at the surface. They take a considerable time 

 to consummate the act." Like contradictory accounts are 

 given as to the mode of coition of the Narwhal, on which I 

 have precise information from the same source, and I am in- 

 clined to the opinion that the differences arise from observers 

 simply recording the incomplete overtures of the male, and 

 their not having witnessed the final consummation. 



NORWICH. 



