WHALING IN SCOTLAND FOR 1907 69 



Iceland. It is a curious thing, 10 inches long, composed 

 of a round rod with a loose harpoon-head into which one 

 end of the rod fits. On the other end of the rod are two 

 india-rubber rings, and the place where a third has been. 

 It most likely has a South American origin, and shows what 

 great distances these whales travel. 



Bal^na biscayensis. 



The extraordinary success of the Buneveneader station 

 in capturing 24 of these rare whales is said to have been 

 exceeded by a Company using a floating factory and fishing 

 near South-West Africa, who are said to have got 42 of 

 this species. 



The Buneveneader whales consisted of — 



12 cows— 48, 48, 47, 44I, 44, 49, 47, 47I, 47, 48 J, 46, 47 J 



feet long ; 

 12 bulls— 47I 46, 45, 46J, 45, 45 J, 46, 48, 45, 43, 47, 46 



feet long ; 



the cows having an average length of 47 feet and the bulls 

 45 feet. The cows had an average girth of 36.6 feet, the 

 bulls of 33.7 feet. As is usual with most whales, the cow 

 is larger than the bull. 



The whalebone is worth about ;^400 a ton ; but the 

 yield is much less than that of the Greenland Right Whale, 

 as the bone is shorter, generally from 7 to 8 feet, the 

 weight of bone being about 6 to 7 cwt. per whale. 



Bal.^noptera sibbaldil 



The Buneveneader station, as I have said, got six bulls 

 of 69, 80, 73, J 6, 81, 71 feet long, or an average length of 7 5 

 feet. 



The three cows were 82, 79, and 78 feet — an average of 

 79.6. The large cow had a girth of 50 feet, the largest bulls 

 42 and 45 feet. 



The Norrona cow was 68 feet long. 



These " Blue Whales " seem more common off Faroe 

 and Iceland, also off Finmark, than they are off Scotland. 

 Off Shetland they are decidedly rare, the Buneveneader 



