244 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



huge bodies against the rocks and freeing themselves from the barnacles and other 

 parasitical animals with which they are covered". The Right whales arrived off the 

 coast of New Zealand at the beginning of May from the northward, and the cows 

 entered the bays to calve throughout May, June and July. Nearly all the Right whales 

 killed were cows with their calves, since the bulls rarely approached the land so closely 

 and were much more shy and wild. The cows were joined by the bulls later in the season 

 and both cows and bulls put to sea together. In October and November they returned 

 north and east, some through Cook Strait and some through Foveaux Strait. According 

 to Dieffenbach they began to show themselves at the Chatham Islands from June 

 onwards and their numbers increased in that locality towards the end of the season. 

 ' ' During the six remaining months of the year the ships cruising in the ' whaling ground ' 

 fall in with many whales. This whaling ground extends from the Chatham Islands to 

 the eastward of the North Island of New Zealand and thence to Norfolk Islands." 



Whaling operations were carried on from ships anchored in the bays, particularly 

 Cloudy Bay or the Bay of Islands, or from stations established on shore. These shore 

 establishments eventually became very numerous and came to resemble well-equipped 

 factories with houses and plant erected in suitable bays, from which the bay whaling 

 could be carried on by means of a number of boats. In the early bay whaling days, 

 however, they were no more than try pots erected on the beach with huts for the 

 storage of whaling gear and boats. McNab quotes a Mr Bell, who owned a station 

 in Cloudy Bay, and who gave a description of bay whaling. " If the fishing is to be 

 carried on by means of a shore party the try pots and huts are erected on the beach 

 and the vessel which brought the party down is either employed in collecting flax along 

 the coast or returns to Sydney and is sent down again at the end of the season to bring 

 them up with what oil they may have caught. The boats are sent out at daylight every 

 morning and, when they are so fortunate as to kill a fish, it is towed ashore and ' flinched ' 

 and boiled up on the beach. When the fishing is carried on in a vessel the blubber is 

 boiled in try pots erected on deck as in a Sperm whaler. . . . The whales are seldom 

 killed nearer than two miles from the harbour and sometimes seven or eight. . . . The 

 depth of the water in the bays where the whales are killed is 14-20 fathoms." Look-out 

 posts were established on an elevated part of the coast near the plant or the anchorage 

 so that warning could be given when the spout of a whale was seen. The operation of 

 "flensing" or "cutting-in" was presumably carried out in the manner described by 

 Scammon (1874, p. 235) at Californian bay whaling stations, since Dieffenbach 

 mentioned the "shears", a gallows or scaffolding erected near the shore, by means of 

 which the carcase was suspended at the surface of the water. It could then be turned 

 and rolled over by tackle while the blubber was being stripped off. When the whaling 

 was carried on from a ship the shears were lowered over the side. "The blubber was 

 cut off in square pieces by means of a sharp spade, carried to the shore and put into 

 the try pots " (Plate XIII, fig. 2). At American whaUng stations the blubber was cut off 

 in a series of spiral folds. 



That this was the method of flensing employed by the bay whalers seems fairly 



