ZOOLOGY. — MYSTICETUS. 473 



they are found most generally solitary, or in pairs, 

 excepting when drawn to the same spot, by the at- 

 traction of an abundance of palatable food, or of a 

 choice situation of the ice. 



The superiority of the sexes, in point of numbers, 

 seems to be in favour of the male. Of 124 whales 

 which have been taken near Spitzbergen in eight 

 years, in ships commanded by myself, 70 were males, 

 and 54 were females, being in the proportion of five 

 to four nearly. 



The mysticetus occurs most abundantly in the 

 frozen seas of Greenland and Davis' Strait, — in the 

 bays of Baffin and Hudson, — in the sea to the 

 northward of Behring's Strait, and along some 

 parts of the northern shores of Asia, and probably 

 America. It is never met with in the German 

 Ocean, and rarely within 200 leagues of the Bri- 

 tish coasts : but along the coasts of Africa and 

 South America, it is met with, periodically, in con- 

 siderable numbers. In these regions, it is attacked 

 and captured by the southern British and Ameri- 

 can whalers, as well as by some of the people inha- 

 biting the coasts to the neighbourhood of which it 

 resorts. Whether this whale is precisely of the 

 same kind as that of Spitzbergen and Green- 

 land, is uncertain, though it is evidently a mysti- 

 cetus. One striking difference, possibly the effect 

 of situation and climate, is, that the mysticetus 

 found in southern regions, is often covered with 



