THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 39 



Bal/en^ Dentaive. 



Dorso laevi apinnes. 



1. Cete Cliisii Exot. [Not American.] 



2. Cachclot s. Potfish Zorgdrageri. [ = Sperm whale.] 

 Dorso laevi pinnatse. 



1. BaliBtia major. [Not American.] 



2. Millar Nierembergii. [Do.] 



3. Litickii. [Do.] 

 Dorso gibbo apinnes. 



Dudlcji Balana. [ = Sperma Ceti whale of Dudley.] 

 Dorso gibbo pinnatse. 



Balmna, Tigridis inslar, variegata. 



lu 17-il appeared the first edition of Egede's Desci'iption of Greenland. Ecjede 

 was for twenty-five years a missionary in that country and must have had many 

 opportunities for obtaining information regarding whales. He mentions and briefly 

 describes various cetaceans, including " the Whale " (Bowhead), the " Finned whale " 

 or " Fin-Fish," the " Nord Caper," and the " Cachelot." The matter relating to the 

 " Nord Caper" appears to have been extracted from some earlier author, but the 

 remainder is original. It is for the most part accurate, and is of interest on account 

 of the frequency with which it is quoted by later writers.' 



In 1746 Jolin Andei'son, burgomeister of Hamburg, a scholarly writer and 

 painstaking natui-alist, published an excellent I'esume of what was then known of 

 whales in northern waters, in his Nachrichten von Island, Grbuland und der 

 Strasse Davis.~ He appears not to have acquired any knowledge of the natural his- 

 torj^ of the cetaceans by direct observation, but diligently pursued inquiries among 

 the whalers and fishermen who came to Hambiirg. He took every opportunity to 

 examine the treasures in the various European museums then established, and as- 

 sembled a natural history cabinet of his own. 



In the course of his essay on Greenland and Davis Strait, Anderson stops to 



consider the cetaceans. He includes and comments on the vai'ious species mentioned 



by Paul Dudley in 1725, and the earlier anonymous writer in the Philosophical 



Transadiom. His classification and the species of whalebone whales mentioned 



are as follows : 



Genus Ceiaceum. 



Or 



(i) Whales with blowholes. 

 (2) Whales with nostrils.' 



(i) Whales with smooth backs. \^—Bal(eiii7ia?[ 



{a) The true whale, or Greenland Right whale. \=.Balana ?nysticetus.'\ 

 {b) The Nordcaper. \ = B. glacialis ox biscaycnsis.'] 



(2) Whales with the back grown out. \ = Balanopterina:?^ 



' Egede, H., a Description of Greenland. Translated from the Danish. London, 1745, pp. 

 65-82, pis. 5 and 6. I have not seen the original edition. ' Hamburg, \ 746, pp. 95-103, 185-230. 



' Anderson comments on the fact that the Greenland whalemen have not seen any of the 

 second class, and states that he would disbelieve in their existence but for Sibbald's observations. 

 Sibbald, however, while speaking of nostrils really describes the blowholes, having apparently be- 

 come confused between the simple blowhole of the toothed whales and the double one of the whale- 

 bone whales. 



