MIGRATIONS OF WHALES — -KELLOGG 483 



farther northward in the Arctic Ocean, where they force their way 

 through the field of ice and scattered floes. In October and Novem- 

 ber they again appear off the coast of Oregon and California on 

 their southward migration to their tropical winter liaunts. In 

 1851, according to Scammon (1874, p. 23), it was estimated that 1,000 

 whales passed the shore stations of southern California daily be- 

 tween December 15 and February 1 on their downward run. To-day 

 they are well-nigh exterminated along the North American coast. 



Records obtained from the Vega whaling expedition operating at 

 Magdalena Bay, Lower California, during the years 1924 to 1926 

 show that the gray whales do not arrive until about December 28. 

 The southward migration reached its height about January 22 and 

 ended about February 16. Tliis expedition left Magdalena Bay on 

 April 7 and did not meet with the northward migrating schools. The 

 Vega expedition, however, resumed their operations at Nathalia Bay, 

 Kamchatka, and from July 27 to August 22 noted gray whales in 

 considerable numbers. (Risting, 1928, pp. 80-89.) 



Toward the end of November, according to Andrews (1914, p. 

 235), gray whales appear at Ulsan, in southeastern Korea, on their 

 southward migration. Pregnant females arrive first and they are 

 followed by the males. By the end of January all the females have 

 passed. The young are born in the bays among the numerous small 

 islands at the extreme southern end of the Korean Peninsula. 



On the northward migration they again appear at Ulsan (40 

 miles north of Fusan) in southeastern Korea, about the middle of 

 March, and by the middle of May all have passed by. Gray whales 

 are also found during this period at Broughton Bay on the coast 

 of Korea, and they migrate past the east coast of Sakhalin Island. 

 (Tago, 1922.) These herds pass the summer in the Okhotsk Sea. 



BLUE WHALE (SIBBALDUS MUSCULUS) 



Blue whales spend a large portion of each year m migration, but 

 rarely gather in large schools. In the North Atlantic they move in 

 early spring from the waters off the banks east of Newfoundland 

 in a northeasterly direction to the Arctic Ocean, where according to 

 Collett (1912, p. 586) they spend the summer. The return migra- 

 tion occurs in the autumn. 



Blue whales seem to be partial to cold water and to avoid the 

 tropics. In southern latitudes they approach the borders of the 

 pack ice and traverse the cold northward-flowing currents. Off the 

 North American coast they frequent the ice-chilled Nova Scotian 

 current and the icy water that flows from the St. I-^awrence as well 

 as that which owes its origin to the Labrador current, but blue 

 whales have been stranded as ,far south as Ocean City, N. J., and 

 it is possible, as Allen (1916, p. 255) remarks, that they may follow 



