{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



R Y 



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The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 81.] 1918 [September. 



ON WHALES LANDED AT THE SCOTTISH 

 WHALING STATIONS, ESPECIALLY DURING 

 THE YEARS 1908-1914 Part I. The Nordcaper. 



By D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. 



In a series of papers in the Annals, from 1904 to 19 10, the 

 late Mr R. C. Haldane gave us a great deal of interesting 

 information concerning the catch of whales by the Scoto- 

 Norwegian whaling companies, which began their operations 

 on our coasts about the year 1903, and came to an end, 

 meanwhile at least, soon after the beginning of the war. 

 From the year 1908 onwards, as one of the conditions under 

 which licenses were granted for this fishery, a complete 

 record of the catch was kept by each company for the 

 information of the Fishery Board for Scotland, giving the 

 place and date of capture, the sex, the length and the girth 

 of each individual " fish," according to their several species; 

 and these lists I have now attempted to epitomise and to 

 discuss. I have to thank our Chairman and Secretary, 

 Mr Archibald Sutherland, C.B., and Staff-Paymaster D. T. 

 Jones, for placing them at my disposal ; and I have also to 

 thank Captain C. H. Brown, my colleague in many hydro- 

 graphical and other investigations, for undertaking the 

 laborious task of charting the whole long list of captures. 

 The whaling stations are five in number, all situated in the 

 Shetland Islands, save one, which is in the Outer Hebrides: 

 viz., the Alexandra Co., in Colla Firth ; the Norrona and 

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