CHAPTER IX. 



WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE EASTERN NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 



Present kuowledge of the large whales of the west coast of North America 

 rests almost exclusively on the observations of Capt. C. M. Scamraon, made more 

 than thirty years ago. The record of these observations, together with some pieces 

 of whalebone, bones, etc., was sent by Capt. Scammon to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. The manuscript was placed by the secretary of the Institution in tlie 

 hands of Professor E. D. Cope, who edited it and published it in the name of 

 Capt. Scammon, and at the same time described a number of the species as 

 new (83). 



Later, Capt. Scammon published his well-known work entitled Marine Mam- 

 mals of the Northwestern Coast of North America (82), in which additional informa- 

 tion was given regarding the various species, together^with more elaborate figures. 

 This work was accompanied by an appendix by Mr. Wm. H. Dall, giving a list of 

 species and valuable measurements, references to specimens, etc. 



In 1872 Capt. Scammon published a description of a small Balosnoptera, 

 under the name of B. davidsoni, which had been omitted from the large work 

 (81). Very little has been added since Capt. Scammon's time either in the 

 way of new observations or specimens, and the present knowledge of these West 

 Coast whales is still very incomplete. 



In 1893 the skeleton of a Humpback whale from the West Coast was exhib- 

 ited in the World's Columbian Exposition. A few notes on it which I made 

 at the exposition are given on a subsequent page. Photographs of a Hum[)back 

 killed in Henderson Bay, Puget Sound, were obtained by the National Museum 

 in 1896. In 1899 a fine adult skeleton of a West Coast Finback, which had been 

 formerly the property of Prof. Cope, was mounted and exhibited in the Wistar In- 

 stitute, Philadelphia. The greater part of the material sent to the Smithsonian 

 Institution by Capt. Scammon in 1869 and subsequent years is still in the National 

 Museum, and has been examined and verified by the writer. 



Observations of the large whales of the western shoi-es of the North Pacific have 

 been recorded by Pallas (72, 286-288), Temmiuck and Schlegel, Gray (53, 96 ; 54, 

 1 ; 55, 43), Mobius (70), and others. These observations, of course, throw light on 

 the identity of the species of the American coasts and the scientific names in some 

 instances doubtless have priority over those of Cope. While it is not possible 

 at the present time to investigate the identity of the species in the same detail 

 as in the case of the Atlantic species, it seems desii-able to review the subject in 

 the present connection, and to add such new information as has accumulated. 



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