MAMMALS OF BERMUDA. 151 



Some of the larger whales when captured are found to be infested 

 externally by parasites, among others the well-known cirrii^ede ( Balanus), 

 which, from the large size some of the specimens attain, must have been 

 in situ for a considerables period. 



The flesh of this whale, especially that of the cub, is often sold for 

 food, and is considered a treat by the families of the fishermen and labor- 

 ers, who cannot afford to pay the exorbitant prices demanded by the 

 vendors of butchers' meat and poultry. We cannot, however, coincide 

 with the statements of those who declare it impossible to tell a whale- 

 steak from a beef one, when i)roperly cooked, for the oily nature of the 

 substance cannot wholly be obliterated under any circumstances, and 

 never fails to afibrd the palate of the most ordinary taster a clew to its 

 origin. 



The migrations of this whale,* as far as tlie Kortli Atlantic is con- 

 cerned, are by no means clearly ascertained, as evinced by tlie state- 

 ment made by M. F. Maury, who afiirms that "the Right AVhale 

 does not cross the equator or reach so low a latitude as Bermuda in the 

 West Atlantic, although it does so on the side of Madeira." A very 

 general belief prevails that the heated waters of the Gulf Stream pre- 

 sent an impassable barrier to the southward i)rogress of the Right 

 WTiale, and it is somewhat strange that although the presence of this 

 species has been known to the inhabitants of the Bermudas ever since 

 the islands were first colonized, as well as to American whalers for 

 many years, its mode of reaching that position has not been properly 

 investigated. The fact of its crossing the Gulf Stream on its southward 

 migration, and also on its return to the north, has been well known to 

 all traders between northern i)arts and the West Indies ever since com- 

 mercial intercourse has been established 5 but we are unaware of any 

 published statements having appeared to such effect until Col. Drum- 

 mond Hay, President of the Natural History Society of Perthshire, (Scot- 

 land), who was quartered with his regiment, the Forty-second Highland- 

 ers, for some years upon the islands, and devoted much of his leisure 

 time in investigating their natural history, in a paper on "Migration," 

 which he recently read before his society, thus alluded to the matter: 

 *'One especial instance which I will take is that of the Greenland Whale 



'Owiuji to I he eoDlnsiou in local nonieiiclatnre so jnevalent in Bermuda, tli© 

 ■wrirtii- has failed to discriminate between the Kigbt Whales and Hump-backs and 

 the Bowhead, which ncvtr ranges so far south. — Editou. 



