70 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Station, Harris, being the only one that falls in with them 

 in any numbers. 



They are said to go very far north, to the neighbourhood 

 of the ice, and seem to pass along b}' Iceland to Newfound- 

 land, wliere they are common ; 96 having been got in the 

 season of i 906, according to the return of the Department 

 of Marine and Fisheries. In the season 1904-5 the return 

 of Blue Whales (there called Sulphur Bottoms) was 263. 

 The Inspector of Whale Fisheries there attributes the 

 falling off in numbers to either scarcity of whales or that 

 they are shyer and more difficult to approach ; but owing to 

 the heavy tax on the stations many of the steamers are 

 being sold to go to Japan, which may account for part of 

 the smaller catch. 



BAL/ENOPTERA musculus. 



I had several opportunities for studying the colour of 

 these whales in the sea. The conclusion I came to was 

 that the effect of light makes a great difference. One 

 morning I saw on one side of the steamer a whale which 

 was absolutely sepia in colour ; on the other side was a 

 whale so dark grey that it seemed to be black. Neither of 

 these were killed. 



Speaking, however, to one of the managers of the 

 stations, he assured me that there really was considerable 

 variation in colour. He thought there were distinct 

 varieties of Finner whales — a large brown whale, the dark 

 grey one, and a smaller black variety. The manager of 

 another station said there were different varieties both of B. 

 musculus and B. sibbaldii. This is an interesting question, 

 and should be investigated. It shows how little we really 

 know about whales. At the same time one finds trout in 

 the same loch of different colours in different places, yet one 

 could not call them varieties, the colour being due to the 

 nature of the bottom of the part of the loch where they live. 

 It may possibly be that the colouring of w^hales is affected 

 by the nature of the sea. 



It was only in August 1907 that whales were found 

 which were living upon herrings. This is easily explained, 



