94 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vol. 45 



In plate xxvi, i, is shown a finback ready to descend. The head 

 has already disappeared, the back is quite strongly arched, and the 

 dorsal fin is very distinct and entirely above water. As in the other 

 views nothing is seen of the flukes. 



The finback shown in plate xxvi, 2, has the head much farther 

 down in the water and the back very strongly arched. The dorsal 

 fin is visible, but is partially submerged. Here again the flukes are 

 invisible. 



These photographs and the notes, which I made while on the whal- 

 ing steamer, are in agreement with the observations of Packard, 

 Scammon, Pechuel, Cocks, Balfour, and Rawitz on the same species 

 and its close ally (which may, indeed, be identical with it) in the 

 Pacific. All agree that under ordinary circumstances the finback 

 rises and sounds obliquely, that the flukes are not thrown out, that 

 the spout is vertical, and that the actions of the animal as regards 

 the length of time it remains below the surface, the distance it travels 

 while submerged, and the number of times it spouts in succession,, 

 are irregular. Pechuel held that the spout was double, but my 

 observations agree with those of Packard, Rawitz, and Racovitza, 

 that the spout is single in the finbacks. The vapor-laden breath in 

 all whalebone whales escapes, of course, from two separate apertures, 

 but in the common finback, at least, the two columns unite so close 

 to the head that they appear as one. 



