THE SPERM WHALE IN THE SHETLAND SEAS 9 



capture of several examples of this whale in the North 

 Sea. Thus, in 1770, one fifty-two feet long was stranded 

 on the small island of Hjarno in Horsens Fjord ; bones 

 of another specimen were found at an uncertain date on 

 the island Lesso, in the Cattegat. Prof. Collett states 

 that in 1780 one was obtained on the west coast of 

 Norway, in Sond Fjord, and another in 1849 near the 

 island of Smoelen, off Christiansund. Professor Sars 

 mentions that in the summer of 1865 one was got as 

 far north as the Lofoden Islands, within the Arctic Circle. 

 The Bergen Museum obtained in 1888 the tooth of a 

 sperm whale found in the sand on the coast of Jaderens, 

 in the south-west of Norway. 



Guldberg also records two specimens seen in 1895 ; 

 one, an old solitary male, 19 metres long, was caught in 

 the neighbourhood of the North-West Coast Islands, and 

 its skeleton is now in the Tonsberg Museum. The other, 

 one of a herd of four sperm whales, was captured off 

 the Faroe Islands. It was a male, 20 metres long, 

 obviously full grown, and its skeleton is in the Museum 

 at Copenhagen. In the early summer of 1896 a herd of 

 seven was seen near the coast of East Finmark, and of 

 these two were captured; one was a young male 12.8 

 metres long, and its skeleton is in the Natural History 

 Museum at Berlin ; the other, a female, was i o metres 

 long. A third specimen was taken in the same summer 

 in Baaclsfjord ; it was a male, 1 5 metres long, and the 

 skeleton is in the Bergen Museum. 



In 1899 a herd of sperm whales was seen in the 

 neighbourhood of the Faroes, but they escaped capture. 

 In the summer of 1901 a sperm whale between 60 and 

 70 feet long was seen north-east of the Faroe Islands, 

 and after an exciting chase was captured. The sex is 

 not stated, but from its length it was probably a male. 

 In August 1901 Captain Albert Gron observed a herd 

 of about ten sperm whales in the neighbourhood of the 

 Faroes, one of which was harpooned, but escaped ; it is 

 not unlikely that the Shetland specimen, which had been 

 struck by a harpoon, and was found floating dead during 

 the same month, was this animal. 



