true] photographs of living finback whales 93 



as it courses along at the surface. The whale has spouted and is pre- 

 paring to descend. It will be noted that the entire head is below 

 water ; the back is slightly arched and the dorsal fin is distinctly in 

 view above the surface, though the water is breaking over it in front. 

 The flukes are invisible and make no disturbance of the surface of 

 the water. Nothing is seen of the pectoral fins. 



Plate XXIV, 2, represents a finback that has just come to the surface 

 to spout, or has just completed that act. The top of the head is out 

 of water and slightly inclined upward. The blowholes are seen as 

 a dark eminence, and all about the head is a white rim of foam. 

 There is an appearance on the right side as of the mandible projecting 

 laterally beyond the upper jaw, but this is probably an illusion due 

 to the waves. 



In plate xxv, i, is shown a finback in a similar position, but there 

 is no doubt in this case that the whale has spouted. Its vapory breath 

 forms part of the haze at the left of the head. The whole upper 

 surface of the body from about the middle of the head to the dorsal 

 fin is above water and the blowholes are distinctly marked by a dark 

 eminence near the left end. The dorsal fin is not visible, but would 

 have soon appeared. A very remarkable feature of this view is the 

 great height of the eminences at the sides of the blowholes. The 

 apertures themselves are situated between elevations, but in the dead 

 whales. on the slip these eminences present no such apparent height 

 as here shown. This photograph and the next lend some support 

 to the view advanced by Buchet and Racovitza that the whales pro- 

 ject the blowholes outward when spouting. Racovitza's photographs, 

 however, while admirable in other respects, and extremely interest- 

 ing, do not show the region of the blowholes distinctly enough to 

 throw much light on the point in question, and his sketches are rather 

 unintelligible, and in some cases (e. g., plate 3, figs. 14, 15, etc.) cer- 

 tainly incorrect. It would appear, at all events, that the eminences 

 at the sides of the blowholes are raised when the whale is spouting, 

 rather than the blowholes themselves. 



Plate xxv, 2, shows a finback in an attitude similar to the last, but 

 the animal is nearer. In this the ridges on the sides of the blow- 

 holes are extremely prominent and clearly defined. The anterior end 

 of the head is hidden, but the line of the back is visible to the dorsal 

 fin, over which the waves are breaking. Even beyond the fin the 

 dorsal line is to be seen, but is not well defined. 



Plate xxv, 3, is a rather indistinct view of one of these finbacks 

 from the posterior end. It shows the great breadth of the back. 

 The blowholes appear as black spots at the interior end of the figure, 

 and the dorsal fin, with foam about it, at the posterior end. 



