WHALES LANDED AT SCOTTISH WHALING STATIONS 39 



The Sei-whale has but a short season on our coasts (^/ 

 Fig. 8). Very few indeed are captured in April and again 

 very few in September, during both of which months the 

 Finners are fairly plentiful. There is a well-marked and 

 high maximum in June, when (as we have already seen) the 

 Nordcaper and the Bottlenose have also, apparently, their 

 maxima. In Finmark, according to Hjort, the Sei-whale 

 comes at the same time as the Blue-whale, namely from 

 June to September ; but Cocks speaks of it as coming early 

 in June and departing early in August. 



Harmer {Brit. Mus. Report, No. 5, 191 8) tells us that 

 a specimen was stranded on the Scilly Islands, on 13th 

 October 191 7, that is to say immediately after the season 

 during which the species frequents our fishing-grounds. 



We may illustrate the marked difference in season between 

 the Sei and the Finner by the following table, which shows 

 the relative numbers of the two species captured from month 

 to month : 



April. May. June. July. August. Sept. October. 

 Sei-whales . 6 188 698 313 76 9 i 



Finners . . 180 404 472 644 583 123 4 



No. of Sei per 



100 Finners . 4 47 148 49 13 7 



The catch of Sei-whales varies very greatly from year to 

 year very much more than does the catch of Finners. 

 Amplifying part of our former table by including Mr R. C. 

 Haldane's data for the years 1904- 1907, and again comparing 

 (as we have just done for the months) the yearly numbers of 

 Sei and of Finners, we have the following results : 



1904. 1905. 1906. 1907. 1908. 1909. 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. 

 Sei . . 9 34 326 151 232 224 190 130 108 159 248 

 Finner . . 400 450 320 305* 379 432 381 344 282 259 322 



No. of Sei per 



100 Finners 2 8 102 (50) 61 52 50 38 37 61 77 

 ^ Not including the large catch at Olna station. 



The catch was extremely small in 1904, and again small 

 in 1905 ; indeed in the former year Sei-whales were practically 

 absent from our whaling-grounds. All of a sudden, in 1906 

 there was a very great influx, and the catch of that year 

 remains the largest on record. This was also the year of 



