2S 6 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



estimated numbers are little more than guesswork, and no allowance is made here for 

 varying weather conditions and visibility. Furthermore, the whaling grounds are not 

 very evenly sampled in the different areas, and the observations of a single ship in such 

 a vast expanse of ocean must in any case be of doubtful value, for even in the major areas 

 of concentration whales are distributed in a patchy manner in what may be loosely 

 described as herds, and such herds may easily be missed. The observations can there- 

 fore give only a very rough indication of distribution. They are, however, distributed all 

 round the Southern Ocean, and the 'whales per day' are plotted for what they are 

 worth in Fig. 7. 



Comparatively few whales have been seen in area II, but it may well be that the 

 observations have not fairly covered the modern whaling grounds here which are mainly 



I AREA II I AREA IE 



DEGREES WEST 



AREAIT I AREAY 



AREAYI 



AREA I 



DEGREES EAST DEGREES WEST 



60 40 20 20 40 GO SO 100 120 140 IG0 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 



55 i 

 50^ 



a 40i 

 Ej 35 1 



m - 

 ^ 25^ 



£ 2 o4 

 10-: 



Fig. 7. Estimated numbers of whales, presumed to be Blue, Fin or Humpback, seen per day south of 50 S 

 during selected passages of the ' Discovery II ', 1933-9. From Table 16. 



off the pack-ice of the Weddell Sea. In area III, according to expectation, plenty of 

 whales are seen between 10 and 40 E, and in area IV the peak in 80-90 E corresponds 

 with peaks at about the same position in Figs. 5 and 6. The considerable numbers seen 

 about 130 E suggests that the division between areas IV and V is not necessarily 

 marked by any great scarcity of whales. It is perhaps significant that this peak of 

 observed whales corresponds with the large number of ' Fin whales killed per day ' 

 shown in the lower right-hand corner of Fig. 5, and it may well be that the division 

 between areas IV and V holds good for Blue whales but not for Fin whales. The high 

 peak in the middle of area V is dependent on a single set of observations. Perhaps the 

 most instructive part of Fig. 7 is that which represents the whales seen in the Pacific 

 sector between 170 and 6o° W. Three cruises were made in this sector (see Fig. 8), each 

 on a zigzag course covering a belt of ocean off the pack-ice which corresponds in position 

 and extent with the pelagic whaling grounds in other parts of the Antarctic. Some con- 



