THE ORDER CETACEA. 195 



there of immense size. The usual retreat of the sper- 

 maceti whale is the northern ocean, towards- Davis's 

 Straits, North Cape, and the coasts of Finmark. Of all 

 the cetacea this appears to lead the most wandering 

 life. In 1787, great numbers of this species were dis- 

 covered in an extensive bay on the southern peninsula 

 of Africa, at the distance of forty leagues from the Cape 

 of Good Hope. 



It is hardly ever met with in the German Ocean, and 

 rarely within two hundred leagues of the British coasts ; 

 but along the coasts of Africa and South America it is 

 met with periodically, in considerable numbers. In 

 these regions it is attacked and captured by the south- 

 ern British and American whalers, as well as by some 

 of the people inhabiting the coasts in the neighbour- 

 hood. Whether this whale is precisely the same kind 

 as that of Spitzbergen and Greenland has not yet been 

 ascertained, although it evidently is a mysticetus ; per- 

 haps it may be some important variety of this species. 

 However, there is one striking difference, which may 

 possibly be the effect of situation and climate, which is, 

 that the baleena mysticetus which is found in the 

 southern regions is frequently found covered with bar- 

 nacles, vulgarly called the whale-louse, whilst those of 

 the Arctic Seas are free from these shell fish. 



The fishing grounds for the spermaceti whale are — 

 1st. From the Sechelles Isles (belonging to us), to 

 Timor, and all the coast of New Holland, as far as 

 Shark's Bay. 2nd. The Japanese seas, as far as the 

 Philippine Isles, and to the eastward as far as California. 

 The black whale comes from the south polar seas in 

 May to bring forth its offspring • it remains in the bays 

 of New Holland, Africa, and South America, till Au- 

 gust, and on the coasts till November, when it returns 



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