II.] ANTARCTIC FAUNA 



355 



hardly to be believed that experienced whalers whom Ross had 

 with him on the ' Erebus ' could have made such a mistake as 

 this. The spout of the Rorqual, moreover, is characteristically 

 high, single, and upright, whereas the spout of the Right, or 

 Whalebone whale, is definitely shorter and divided into two to 

 form a double spout. 



There are still two other forms of Finner whales which must be 

 mentioned : the one, a round-backed, black, and solitary whale of 

 from twenty to thirty feet, with a very small hook-like dorsal fin ; 

 and the other, in direct contrast to this, a gregarious whale having 

 a dorsal fin of quite enormous length and prominence. This latter, 

 which was apparently noticed in Ross Sea by MacCormick as 

 well as Ross, has not been named. No example has yet been 

 taken. It is a square-headed whale of some twenty feet in length, 

 black above, but white, so far as we could see, beneath the throat. 

 The dorsal fin, which comes well out of the water, must have been 

 between two and three feet in height, long, curved, and pointed, 

 somewhat like a sabre. There was no possibility of mistaking it 

 for the only other high-finned form, the Killer, for the ochre- 

 coloured saddle of the Killer and the buff patch on the head are 

 recognisable even at a distance. The shape of the head, too, is 

 more pointed in the Killer, and its movements far more active and 

 restless than those of the High-finned black whale. 



Beaked whales were also to be seen in schools from time to 

 time, and we had the good fortune in McMurdo Strait to see one 

 'breeching.' The whole school of whales, about ten in number, 

 was blowing and splashing in the bay, when suddenly we saw one 

 of them leap clean out of the water and fall back with a resound- 

 ing splash. 



It would be unwise to attempt to give specific names as yet to 

 these various whales, but if, as may some day happen, their study 

 should be more systematically taken up, it may be of use to know 

 that there are at least these seven different species that I have 

 mentioned to be found within the limited area of Ross Sea alone, 

 and that two, at any rate, are new, and at present undescribed. 



Leaving now the whales, we come to a group of animals 

 which are very typical of the polar regions. There are five species 

 of Antarctic seals, of which three are only to be found within 

 the Circle. These are the Crab-eating or White seal {Lobodon 

 carcinophagus\ the Ross seal {Oimnatophoca rossi\ and the 

 Weddell seal {Leptonychotes weddellt). Of the other two, the 



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