OS PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



was opened ;" this was in 1806, and agrees with Webster's statement 

 that he was 10 years old at the time]. Remembers them being an 

 old Whale and a Sucker. Saw five boats go out after them ; as far 

 as he recollects, thinks it was the month of October [" in the sum- 

 mer-time," Allan]. They struck the old Whale, and put three har- 

 poons into her, then they struck the Sucker and killed it ; brought 

 the Sucker ashore and flenched it at the South Quay. [Allan says 

 " they killed the young Whale, and flenched her at the South Quay: 

 she, having sunk, it was two or three days after, before they got 

 her in."] After they had three harpoons in the old Whale, she went 

 twice up into the head of the Bay, going so far that she turned the 

 sand up, and then she stove two of the boats, and broke Mackie's, 

 one of the harpooners, legs. [Allan does not remember the name 

 of the injured man, and thinks only one boat was stove.] After 

 this, the Whale took a run, and went out of the Bay, blowing blood. 

 They followed her as fast as they could, they cut two of the boats 

 from her, and left her towing one boat with their Jack blowing, 

 after taking the crew out of her, and in this condition the Whale 

 went out of sight, and they never saw or heard of her again." Allan 

 says that when she went round the South Head, a heavy sea being 

 on at the time, and darkness coming on, the boats cut and let her 

 go, leaving the boat, which was stove, fast to the Whale, the flag 

 still blowing, and that she went out to sea and was never seen again. 

 Capt. Gray adds that " Capt. Wm. Volum, of the ' Enterprise/ and 

 Capt. Alex. Geary, of the ' Hope,' both took part in the chase, and 

 in that year the ' Hope' returned from Greenland on 30th June, and 

 the 'Enterprise' on 30th July; consequently, it must have been 

 some time after the latter date that the Whales came into the Bay ; 

 probably Webster is right when he names October. 



Shortly afterwards, Capt. Gray informed me of a second instance 

 of the appearance of a Right Whale off Peterhead, and this time he 

 was himself the witness. Whilst taking a walk round the " Heads" 

 one Sunday morning before Church, to the best of his recollection 

 early in October, 1872, he saw wdiat he called a Greenland Whale 

 within half a mile of the rocks off the South Head, its appearance 

 and movements being exactly the same as those with which he is so 

 familiar in the Spitzbergen waters. This instance is of course not 

 so conclusive as the previous one, but it seems impossible for a man 

 of Capt. Gray's great experience to have been mistaken. 



I think the appearance on the Scotch coast of a species of Right 



