1898] THE MIGRATION OF THE BIGHT WHALE 401 



Certain it is, however, that about tliat time they suddenly disappear 

 for the season in a north-westerly direction. After the middle of 

 June, whales are generally found in about 72° to 75" N. and 13' 

 W. longitude off the east coast of Greenland. This is known as the 

 .south fishing ground, and from here the vessels usually take their 

 departure for home early in August ; but some very large whales have 

 been killed in the end of August and early in September, indicating 

 the return autumn route of the whales to be along the land-water of 

 the east coast of Greenland. The old males (not so often females) 

 frequently remain off the coast all the summer till the return of the 

 females and young or growing whales ; they approach the shore in 

 autumn, when they join forces and work south together to their 

 winter quarters. 



The movements of tlie whales frequenting the Greenland seas 

 are subject to considerable uncertainty ; the vast extent of ice with 

 its varying and irregular distribution, the influence of prevailing 

 winds, and the presence or absence of food-supply render it very 

 difficult to predict the precise locality in which they will be found 

 at any given period of any particular year. There are also many 

 other disturbing influences, some of which are not at present well 

 understood ; but the above is, I believe, a fairly accurate outline of 

 the usual routes and times of migration of the Right Whale in the 

 Greenland waters. It is traced on the accompanying chart. 



A few of the many interesting features with regard to the 

 migration of the Eight Whale may here be mentioned. Not only 

 is it probable that a separation of the sexes takes place at certain 

 seasons, but also that to some extent the individuals of various ages 

 form themselves into separate communities and occupy stations of 

 their own. It has been observed that the older whales, especially 

 the males, frequent more open water than the females and growing 

 whales, the latter preferring the vicinity of the fast and solid ice. 

 This would account for the presence of the large whales in 70 to 

 75° N. already mentioned; but in former times some very large 

 whales, known as ' blue- water ' whales, used to be captured far 

 from the ice ; some of these have yielded as much as twenty-eight or 

 thirty tons of oil, but they are now very rarely met with. The last 

 I have heard of was taken in 1875, and its longest slip of 'bone' 

 (baleen) measured 12 feet 6 inches. These must have been very 

 old whales, and it is possible that they may have been deposed 

 from their leadership, perhaps by some more vigorous members of 

 the herd, as occasionally happens with individual sperm-whales. 

 The assortment, as it were, of the whales, according to size or age 

 on the various feeding grounds, is a fact well known to the whalers, 

 and Captain Gray tells me that the largest whales are taken between 

 70° and 75° N. ; between 75° 30' and 77° N. the sea is usually 



