264 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



resultant direction during the latter part of the season. It was marked in February and 

 recovered in March after forty-two days; in this time it had moved south-west. If this 

 whale (No. 3300) demonstrates the general direction of movement made in the latter 

 part of the period of freedom of the other two (Nos. 25 13, 2077), these must have spent 

 the earlier part of the season moving south-eastwards. That the movement during the 

 latter part of the season is westerly is corroborated, to some extent, by the direction of 

 movement of a whale (No. 8728) marked in February in a subsequent season and 

 recovered after nineteen days, during which it had covered a distance of almost 300 miles 

 in a west-north-westerly direction. The only other Fin whale (No. 3210) taken after a 

 greater period than ten days moved, in twenty days, eighty-seven miles towards the 

 south-south-east. Although this movement was made in the latter part of the season 

 (February) and shows a distinct easterly direction the distance covered cannot be 

 considered great enough to be very significant. The rest of the marked whales captured 

 in this region and falling into the o-Group were taken after short intervals of ten days or 

 less and only show movement over short distances, in general towards the south. 



The 1 -Group of recovered Fin whales consists of thirty-four returns, one of which 

 (No. 10515) records no data beyond that of recovery. The remaining thirty-three were 

 taken after an average period of 384 days and after intervals varying from 306 to 483 days. 

 The majority of these returns are from whales marked around South Georgia, and the 

 striking thing about them is that with only two exceptions the distances between the 

 position of marking and the position of capture fall within the limits of movements 

 made by whales taken during the same season as marked in the o-Group. The same applies 

 to the whales marked off Enderby Land. Of the other whales in this group, those marked 

 between Bouvet Island and the South Sandwich Islands, in the South Shetland Group 

 and in the Bellingshausen Sea, no returns have been made the same season for compari- 

 son. These limited distances between the positions of marking and capture certainly 

 indicate that Fin whales either remain in the same area of the Antarctic whaling grounds 

 throughout the year or, after any migrations they may perform, normally return to the 

 same area frequented during the preceding season. There can be little doubt that Fin 

 whales usually forsake Antarctic waters for part of the year, so we can be reasonably 

 confident that most of them make their return to the region previously visited. The two 

 exceptions to this (Nos. 1233, 4091) were marked a little to the west of South 

 Georgia in two successive seasons. Both were captured to the east, one (No. 1233) 

 553 miles almost due east of the position of marking, and the second (No. 4091) 11 59 

 miles distant in an east-south-easterly direction. This latter whale was taken a little to 

 the east of the meridian of Greenwich and may be regarded as already having passed into 

 a region which has been considered to be apart from that around and to the south of 

 South Georgia. Although most of the evidence shows that Fin whales return to the 

 same region of the Antarctic they had formerly visited, here is a definite indication that 

 this is not invariably so and that infiltration occurs between one region of abundance 

 and another ; from this it may be concluded that different and distinct races of Fin 

 whales are not likely to be found in different areas of Antarctic waters. Though this 



