591.52 ' 397 



599.5 



IV 



The Migration of the Right Whale 

 (Balaena mysticetus) 



Paet I. — In the Greenland Waters 



WE are so accustomed to regard systematic migration as an 

 attribute peculiarly distinctive of the birds of the air, and 

 only shared with them to a limited extent by a few terrestrial 

 animals, as to be in danger of overlooking the fact that this mysteri- 

 ous instinct (?) is also conspicuously developed in marine mammals. 

 Some members of the Order Pinnipedia especially afford striking 

 examples, but in none does it exist with greater regularity and per- 

 sistency than in the Cetacea. Dr Nansen, in the " First Crossing of 

 Greenland," remarks that " whales have evidently their migrations, 

 though we know little or nothing about them," a reproach which this 

 imperfect contribution to the subject is an attempt in some degree 

 to remove. Since little has been written specially devoted to this 

 interesting feature in their life-history, my object is to present in 

 concise form the information on the subject, at present so widely 

 diffused that its full significance is not apparent. So far as I know, 

 the most important papers bearing on the migration of the Cetacea 

 are those of Eschricht and Reinhardt^, and Dr Robert Brown's 

 valuable papers as reprinted with additions in the " Arctic 

 Manual" (1875, Part 1., Biology, pp. 1 and 69). Much is 

 to be gleaned from the voyages of the early Arctic discoverers, 

 and something from the many less pretentious expeditions in 

 more recent times ; but too often the vague mentions of ' whales ' 

 seen leave the species so uncertain as to be valueless for any 

 useful purpose. This is excusable when we consider how very 

 difficult it is to identify them when seen perhaps only for a 

 brief period, and from the deck of a vessel in perpetual motion. It 

 thus happens that the chief and most reliable information is to be 

 derived from those whose business it is to pursue and capture these 

 animals in their summer haunts. Here again caution is necessary, 

 for intelligent as some of our whalemen have been — and I need only 

 mention Scoresby and David Gray in the Atlantic, and Scammon in 

 the Pacific — it must be borne in mind that their main object is the 



^ "Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea," by Profs. Eschricht, Reinhardt, and Lilljeborg. 

 Edited by W. H. Flower, pp. viii., 312, 6 plates. 4to. Ray Society, London, 1866. 



