714 



DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN 



ir 



evidence as to the migration of whales. 

 With the aid of Captain Sorensen I 

 obtained the two harpoons or bomb- 

 lances which in the years 1888 and 1898 

 were found in the bodies of blue whales 

 {Balcmoptera miisculus) killed in the 

 Barents Sea (see Fig. 512). Such har- 

 poons were never used there, being 

 employed only by the whalers of the 

 Atlantic, for instance, off the coast of 

 North America, and they bear the stamp 

 of the American patent-holder, testifying 

 to their American origin. They must, 

 therefore, be considered as proving 

 enormous migrations on the part of the 

 whales in which they were found. 



G. O. Sars attempted to show that 

 some migrations were undertaken in 

 order to obtain food, and others for the 

 purpose of reproduction, and he thus 

 distinguishes between feeding-migrations 

 and spawning- migrations. When the 

 capelan gather in millions on the coast 

 banks of Finmark, when countless 

 numbers of cod approach the banks of 

 Lofoten, and when the herrings flock to 

 western Norway, they migrate to spawn. 

 The fat-herring collecting off the coast 

 of Nordland, and the cod gathering 

 around the shoals of capelan in the 

 Barents Sea, are examples of feeding- 

 migrations. Such were the ideas of 

 Sars. A more detailed discussion could 

 only be given by reviewing the whole 

 natural history of each species. 



An attempt at explaining a vast 

 migration of fishes by means of mechan- 

 ical laws has recently been made by 

 Otto Pettersson.^ Each year during 

 late autumn large numbers of herrings 

 gather off the island belt at Bohuslan fi^- 51^— -^^iericax "Bomb- 



Lances " taken in Blue 

 ^ Otto Pettersson, Stiidien iibcr die Bewegtingen des Whales in Northern 

 Tiefeiiwassers und ihren Eiiifiiiss aicf die IVanderuiigen der Norway, Finmark, 1888 



fferinge, Fischerbote, 191 1. and 1898. 



