94 BAL^CNID^. 



In False Bay they carry on the fishery from the shore, and during 

 the time Mr. Warwick was there, only one bull out of sixty speci- 

 mens was killed, the females coming into the bay to bring forth their 

 young. He skinned one which was supposed to be not more than 

 eight or ten days old ; it was 20 feet long. 



The females wdth their calves approach the shores of the Cape 

 about the month of June. The female whales, at the end of the period 

 of gestation, seem to visit the bights and inlets of the country which 

 are next to their feeding-grounds. The same is the case round Van 

 Diemen's Land and New Zealand. 



" If 13 feet be the size of the calf in the Northern seas at the 

 period of birth, as stated by Mr. Scoresby, it will be found to be 

 much inferior to what is observed in the South Sea, for I have myself 

 seen more than one extracted from the uterus which had attained 

 the length of 19 feet." — A. Smith, South Afr. Quart. Journ. p. 130. 



The baleen of this animal is sometimes called the Whale-fin of 

 the " Blackfish," the name that has been applied to the Physeter 

 Microps and to an Orca. 



There are sometimes imported with the baleen a few yellowish- 

 white "fins," which seldom exceed 2 feet in length; in these, the 

 fibres as well as the enamel are white ; they are not so transparent 

 as the pale variety of the Greenland fins before referred to ; they 

 have the same coarse texture, and are brittle like the black southern 

 specimens ; and as they do not take so good a polish, they cannot be 

 used for making shavings for plaiting, &c. 



There has lately been brought by the South-Sea ships several 

 hundredweights of a very small kind of whalebone, which is im- 

 planted in the remains of the palate, in three or four series, gradually 

 diminishing in size towards the innermost series ; each piece is linear, 

 compressed, from ^ to ■!• of an inch wide, rounded on the edge, 

 varying from 5 to 8 inches in length, and ending in a tuft of black 

 hair-like fibres. In texture, colour, and external appearance it exactly 

 agrees wdth the baleen of the Southern Whales, and I suspect it must 

 form the inner part of the "screening-apparatus" of that animal; 

 and if that be the case, the existence of these separate pieces near the 

 middle of the roof of the mouth will form a very peculiar character 

 in this kind of whale. I am further strengthened in this belief by 

 perceiving amongst some short pieces of " Southern Whale-fin," pro- 

 bably forming the end part of a " side," at the inner, or shorter, or 

 palatine edge of each blade, two or three small, separate linear pro- 

 cesses of whalebone ending in a parcel of hairs, similar to the pieces 

 above described, but of a smaller size and rather more wavy. 

 Scoresby, who gives a very detailed account of the position of the 

 baleen in Greenland Whales (Arct. Reg. i. 457 and ii. 415), does not 

 mention anything of the kind in that animal ; but it is described as 

 occixrring in the Fin-back by Mr. F. J, Knox (see Cat. Anat. Prep. 

 Whale, 7. n. 5). 



The Black Whale or Right Whale is the one chased on the coast 

 of New Holland. During the winter season many boats are sent out 

 from the coast. 



