1898] THE MIGRATION OF THE RIGHT WHALE 40:; 



There is proof that individual whales resort to the same localities 

 year after year. Captain Gray informed me that in 185G his men 

 observed a whale with a distinct white mark across one side of its 

 nose ; three years later they saw it again in the same place, and 

 struck and lost it. In 1867 he chased a whale " with a growth 

 like a bee-hive on the left side of its tail"; in 1872 he killed this 

 same whale, and almost on the same spot. Writing in 188G, he 

 said that in 1880 he chased a whale with a large white splash on 

 its back, and that he had seen it every year since. He also states 

 that whalers come to know strongly-marked individuals, and recog- 

 nise them from time to time, thus showing that the whales follow 

 the same line of migration for many successive seasons. 



From east of Spitzbergen I can glean very little information with 

 regard to the occurrence of the Eight Whale ; nor, when we consider 

 the requirements absolutely essential to its well-being — ice of great 

 extent, and of a sufficiently open character, deep water, and an 

 abundance of the minute organisms which are consumed in such 

 vast quantities to nourish its mighty fabric — is it reasonable to 

 expect that the shallow waters of Barents Sea should be largely 

 visited by it. It is true, as pointed out by Eschricht and Eeinhardt 

 {I.e., pp. 25, 26), that the ancient Dutch whalers speak of a whale 

 which they distinguished as the ' South-ice ' whale, and believed 

 that it came from the east round the south coast of Spitzbergen ; 

 but very little seems to be known about it, and that little does 

 not affect our present enquiry, although, as these authors remark, 

 it ought not to be totally disregarded, whether a separate species or 

 not. But it must be remembered that Stephen Bennett and Jonas 

 Poole, walrus-hunters, who frequented Cherry Island from 1603 to 

 1609, say no word about whales being found there at that time ; 

 and seeing that it was the same Jonas Poole who in 1610 brought 

 home the news of the great abundance of whales off the west coast 

 of Spitzbergen, which led two years later to the establishment of the 

 successful whale-fishery from that shore, they would hardly have 

 remained silent had they made so important a discovery. Eschricht 

 and Eeinhardt state that " it has been proved by K. E. v, Baer ^ that 

 the whale has not been seen near the coasts of Nova Zembla." 

 The difficulty of determining the species of ' whales ' recorded as seen 

 by modern travellers here presents itself, and it is impossible to say 

 with certainty to w^hat species certain whales mentioned by Nor- 

 denskiold ^ belonged. Speaking of the Eight Whale by name, 

 however, the last mentioned author says, " thus during our many 

 voyages in these waters we have only seen one such whale, which 

 happened on the 23rd June 1864, among the drift ice off the 



^ Wiegmann's Ardi. fur Naturgeschichte, vol. i., p. 168. 

 ^ "Voyage of the Vega," vol. i., p. 169. 



