BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 411 



75 SOME NOTES OIV WHALES. 



By JAUIES TEITIPEE. BROWN. 



[From Letters to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 

 A CALF FINBACK ASHORE. 



Several clays ago a male finback calf became entangled in the net of 

 a weir in Provincetown Harbor, and not being able to free itself was 

 drowned. The blubber, which is thin and poor, but exceedingly tough 

 and " leathery," filled two and a half ordinary flour barrels. 



The baleen, in its natural state firmly attached to the gum and some 

 adhering flesh, is of a light horn color and in a good state of preservation. 

 Both sides of baleen have been put in pickle and Captain Atwood will 

 send it to you if you care for it. 



Provincetown, Mass., October 14, 1882. 



WHALING ON HORSEBACK. 



Shortly after my arrival I was taken with the sperm-whale grampus 

 fever, and finding so many conflicting opinions, both as to the species 

 and the point at which it came ashore, I resolved to investigate the 

 matter. 



I called on Capt. N. E. Atwood and learned that you had asked him 

 to procure the skeleton if possible.* Captain Atwood told me that 

 he had made arrangements to visit the outside of the cape yesterday, 

 but owing to the heavy rain and easterly wind he was compelled to 

 postpone the trip. I therefore made inquiry and found that the gram- 

 pus had been washed ashore below Life Saving Station No. 9, near 

 Parmet Kiver. I interested Mr. Jonathan Cook, proprietor of the Long 

 Point Oil Works, and in him found a ready worker. I proposed that 

 he and I should start out and find "that fish," as he invariably termed 

 it. His brief reply was: "If that fish is ashore, and if Professor Baird 

 wants him, he will have to go to Washington." We mapped out our 

 proposed journey, and found that in going and coming and in traversing 

 the beach, we would be compelled to travel fully 25 miles. The roads 

 were heavy, and we decided upon horses under the saddle as our means 



* Captain Atwood bad written to Professor Baird October 7, 1882, as follows: 

 "Capt. Jonatban Cook says tbe blubber was brougbt to him, and that it was not a 

 sperm wbale wbicb came asbore on the back of the cape. It bad a dorsal tin, while 

 a sperm whale has only a bump on its back. Besides, he thought the jaw different, 

 but could not tell much about it, as tbe man who found it cut it up with an nx, and 

 brought the blubber to tbe oil works in a brokeu condition. It was very poor and 

 yielded only 12 gallons of oil. I have since seen a man from Truro who said the ani- 

 mal came ashore on tbe outside of the cape back of South Truro." — C. W. S. 



