403 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



on board the ' Southern Princess ', who kindly tested them for the colour reaction with 

 phosphotungstic acid. Negative results were obtained. Takata records 0-003 P^^ ^^^^ 

 uric acid in the allantoic fluid of a Sei whale. 



A NOTE ON THE WEIGHTS OF SOME BLUE WHALES 



The weighing of a Blue whale is laborious and has seldom been performed, but some 

 data have been collected at various times. In the tables below are shown measurements, 

 weights of various organs (expressed also as percentages of the total), and total weights 

 of two Blue whales which were dismembered and weighed piecemeal by Capt. S0rlle 

 at Stromness, South Georgia. 



Sir Sidney Harmer has kindly supplied me with another record in Norsk Hvalfangst- 

 Tidende (1924, No. 9, p. 108, quoted from Andrews, 1916) of a Blue whale of 23-72 m. 

 Dr F. A. Lucas weighed this whale piecemeal in Newfoundland and obtained the 

 following results : 



Flesh 40 tons Blood j 



7 tons 



Harmer in his account of "Cervical Vertebrae of a Gigantic Blue Whale from 

 Panama" {Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1923, p. 1085) relates that the whale was 29-8 m. 

 long (98 ft.) and that attempts to lift it out of the water with 75-ton cranes failed. The 

 weight was estimated at 100 tons. 



Messrs the Southern Whaling and Sealing Company have kindly allowed me to quote 

 the approximate weight of a large Blue whale estimated by their chemist Mr R. Squire 

 at Prince Olaf, South Georgia. The whale was 29-5 m. (97 ft.) long. From the number 

 of blubber, meat, and bone cookers which were filled by this whale the weight was 

 deduced to be 163-7 tons (160-4 tonnes) exclusive of blood. The total weight of the 

 whale was probably 174 tons (170-5 tonnes). 



D'Arcy Thompson, in Science of the Sea (second ed., p. 492), calculates that the 

 weight of a Rorqual 85 ft. long would be about 370 tons. In arriving at this result he 

 has made use of the principle that "in bodies of similar shape the bulk or weight will 

 vary as the cube of the linear dimensions ". His calculation is based on the weight of a 

 foetal Rorqual i ft. long. Small foetuses of Rorquals tend to differ considerably in shape 

 from the adults, and if a whale of the shape of, say, a foetal Humpback were to attain 

 to a length of 85 ft. it would doubtless have the weight calculated by D'Arcy Thompson ; 

 but on reference to Table VII it will be seen that this estimate is rather more than 300 

 per cent too high for Blue whales, the largest known species, and it is apparent that 

 weights may not be calculated from foetal material. 



On the basis of the three accurate weights known, a number of calculations have been 

 made to ascertain the weights of Blue whales of various lengths. These calculations are 



