WHALING IN SCOTLAND FOR 1908 



67 



do in other seas. The girth of the 80-foot cow is given at 46 feet, 

 while the 7 7 -foot bull is given at 34 feet. To take the average 

 lengths of the Blue Whales killed in Scottish waters in the last four 

 years, we find 68 bulls averaged 70.4 feet long, and the proportion 

 of bulls to cows was 61.2. 



Forty-three cows averaged 72.9 feet long, and the proportion of 

 cows to bulls was 38.7. 



So the bull Blue Whales were about 1 1 feet longer than the 

 Finner bulls during four years' observation, and the cow Blue Whales 

 were 1 1 feet longer than the Finner cows. 



Captain Castberg wTites me about whaling in the Antarctic, 

 " The Blue Whales down there are bigger than I ever saw them, up 

 to 120 feet long and of an enormous girth. It seems to be just the 

 same sort of whales South as we have North." He says whales are 

 numerous down there, excepting Sperms and B. borealis. 



Bal^noptera borealis : Rudolph's Rorqual. Seihval. 



These whales were plentiful this last season ; to my mind the 

 most graceful of all whales, as its proportions are so perfect and 

 wanting the clumsy strength of the two larger Balaenoptera, Sperms, 

 and jNIegaptera. It is also far the best whale to eat, the flesh 

 tasting of something between pork and veal, and quite tender. 



I give a table of these whales killed in 1908 : — 



To take the results of the last two seasons — 



291 bulls averaged . . . 42.8 feet. 



251 cows averaged . . . 43.8 ,, 



The Seihval are certainly the second most common whales in 

 Shetland waters, always excepting B. rostrata and the smaller 

 whales, of which I know nothing. But I have noticed that they 

 are restless — one week there will be plenty, the next week none. I 

 have before pointed out how a storm took them away both from 

 Buneveneader and Shetland : they certainly seem to be of a shy 

 nature. 



