THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 47 



the travellei's were on the Oregon coast near tlie mouth of the Cohinibia River, and 

 is as follows : 



"Friday [January 4, 1806]. At eleven o'clock we were visited by our neigh- 

 bor the Fia, or chief Comowool, who is also called Coone, and six Clatsops. Besides 

 roots, and berries, they l>ix)Ught for sale three dogs and some fresh bhibbei-. . . . 

 The blubber, which is esteemed by the Indians an excellent food, has been obtained, 

 they tell us, fi'om their neighboi-s the Killamucks, a nation who live on the seacoast 

 to the southeast, and near one of whose villages a whale had recently been thrown 

 and foundered. 



"... We continued for two miles along the sand beacii [Jan. 8, 1806]; 

 and after crossing a creek [Nehalem River, Oregon], eighty yards in width, near 

 which ai'e five cabins, reached the place where the waves had thrown the whale on 

 shore. The animal had been placed between two Killamuck villages, and such 

 was their industry', that there now remained nothing more than the skeleton, which 

 we found to be one huudi'ed and five feet in lensith."' 



The second note refers to the Oregon coast in general, and is as follows : 



"The whale is sometimes pursued, harpooned and taken by the Indians, 

 although it is much more frequently killed by I'unning foul of the rocks in violent 

 storms, and thrown on shore by the action of the wind and tide. In either case, 

 the Indians preserve and eat the Idubber and oil ; the l)one they carefully extract 

 and expose to sale." * 



The systematic treatises of Dr. J. E. Gi'ay, beginning with the Spicilegia 

 Zoologica in 1828, and ending with the Su[)plement to the Catalogue of Seals and 

 Whales in the British Museum in 1871,'^ cover all groups of cetaceans and include 

 many species founded on American material and observations. Gray was accus- 

 tomed to establish genera and species ou quite slight diiferences, real or fancied, and 

 in so difficult a group as the Cetacea this tendency had full play. A large numl)er of 

 the species which he I'ecognized wei'e rejected by the moi-e conservative cetologists 

 who were contemporary with him, or followed him, but in the case of some genei-a 

 there is no doulit that the condensation has been too great. Among the genera 

 and species which Gi-ay recognized or established are some from American waters. 

 In his Supplement, which contains his last [)ulilisiied views, they are as follows: 



Family i. Balsenidre. 



Balasna mysticetus. [Greenland Whale.] 

 Eubalaena .? cisarctica. " Inhab. Atlantic." 



[From Cope. The Biscay whale he makes a separate species, Hunterius biscayensis^ 

 Family 2. Agaphelids. Scrag Whales. 



Agaphelus gibbosus. " Inhab. North Atlantic." 



[From Cope and Dudley.] 

 Rhachianectes glaucus. " Inhab. California, San Francisco." 

 [From Cope.] 



' History of the E.\pedition of Captains Lewis and Clark, 2, 1814, pp. 104, iio-iii. Coues's 

 edition has the following note (2, p. 750): "Clark I 99 erases ' 105 ' and gives no dimensions." 



" Op. cit., p. 196. 



° Gr.-\y, J. E., Supplement to the Catalogue of the Seals and Whales in the British Museum, 

 8°, 1871. 



