A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 687 



One instance, April, I860, is given, when a small Hump-back, "a 

 maiden cub of last year," 33 feet long, was taken, yielding 40 barrels 

 of oil. At the same time it was stated that it was the first one that 

 had been taken " for some years." Another is mentioned April 26, 

 1871, a "cub" 22 feet long, yielding 5^ barrels of oil. It was 

 accompanied by its mother, which followed the cub and " struck the 

 boat with its tail," but she was not captured. The flesh of these 

 young whales is eaten by many of the natives of Bermuda, and is 

 considered very good meat, though it always has a flavor of whale 

 oil, more or less evident. 



The Royal Gazette, Dec. 23d, 1879, records a large school of 

 whales observed off Bermuda. " The barque Elsinore, which arrived 

 at New York on the 23d of October, from Rio Janeiro, reports that 

 six days before, when abreast of Bermuda, she passed through an 

 immense shoal of whales. . . . The procession must have been 

 at least two miles long." These were probably Hump-backs migrat- 

 ing southward. Apparently they do not visit Bermuda during their 

 autumnal migrations. 



Since this date large numbers of Hump-backs, Fin-backs, and 

 other whales have been killed in Massachusetts Bay and northward, 

 by means of bomb-lances, so that their numbers on the New Eng- 

 land coast are now greatly diminished.* 



* In 1859, I personally observed large schools of Hump-backs, with some Fin- 

 backs, in the Bay of Fnncly. They were especially numerous at the seining 

 grounds known as the '" Ripplings," east of Grand Menan Island, towards the 

 center of the Bay, where the strong opposed tidal currents make a large area 

 of very rough water during flood tide, in which a vast school of large herrings 

 were feeding upon an abundant surface shrimp (Thysanopoda norvegica). The 

 whales were feeding both on the herring and shrimp, and were so tame and so 

 intent on their feeding that they often came within an oar-length of the numer- 

 ous boats and vessels engaged in seining the herring, often, indeed, passing 

 under the bowsprits of the vessels. At that time they were never disturbed by 

 the fishermen, and they rarely came in contact with the nets and boats, which 

 they carefully avoided by turning aside or diving under them. There were 

 dozens of them in sight at once. Many that I saw were 60 to 75 feet long, often 

 exceeding the length of the schooners, alongside of which they often passed near 

 enough to be touched with an oar. It was a rare and imposing sight, never to 

 be forgotten, to see these leviathans so tame and fearless of man. One large 

 hump-back whale, which was easily recognized by means of a large barnacle 

 attached by the side of the blow-hole, so as to cause an abnormal noise in blow- 

 ing, had frequented these waters every summer, for more than twenty years, 

 according to the fishermen. At that time there were more than 50 vessels fish- 

 ing at this place, each with 4 to 6 boats and seines in iise. 



