RORQUALS OR FIN WHALES 233 



summer goes as far north as Spitzbergen. In the south it 

 penetrates into Antarctic waters, and has frequently been 

 observed haunting the narrow channels between the islands 

 of the South Shetlands and the Palmer Archipelago. Allen 

 mentions its preference for inshore waters, saying, " So far as 

 observations show, it is distinctively a shore-frequenting 

 whale, and seems to avoid the high seas." 



Scammon describes how the Lesser Rorqual often gambols 

 about vessels under-way, darting from one side to the other 

 beneath their keels. When this whale blows, the spout is 

 very faint, in comparison with that of the Blue or Finner 

 Whale. The animal rises to the surface of the water 5 to 8 

 times in succession, and when diving again the tail flukes do 

 not break surface. Allen mentions an instance of a Lesser 

 Rorqual "breeching" : " Five times it shot above the surface, 

 belly uppermost, clearing the water beautifully, and with 

 body arched slightly backward, fell on its back with a great 

 splash." 



Scammon in ' The Marine Mammals of the North- Western 

 Coast of North America ', and Captain Scott, in the diary of 

 his last expedition, both describe the peculiar behaviour of 

 this Rorqual when in the neighbourhood of ice-floes. If there 

 is not sufficient room to come up to breathe in the normal 

 manner, " they frequently emerge through the narrow fissures 

 bolt upright, with their heads above the broken ice to blow". 

 Scott says : " Several times one rested its head upon a floe 



. . with its nostrils just on the water line ; raising itself 

 a few inches it would blow and then subside again for a few 

 minutes to its original position, with its snout resting on the 

 floe." Shackleton describes a Finner and Scammon the 

 Californian Grey Whale behaving in the same manner. It is 

 perhaps not strange that an action which in these whales is 

 considered to be purely for the purpose of respiration should, 

 in the Killer Whale, be given a secondary and more sinister 

 significance because of the evil reputation of the latter animal. 

 Thus, we have frequent reports of Killers rearing their bodies 

 half out of water to scan the ice floe for possible victims. 



Lesser Rorquals have no commercial value, but they are 

 sometimes killed by the Eskimos for food, and the excellence 

 of the meat has been commented on by more than one author. 



