A. EE. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 687 
One instance, April, 1866, is given, when a small Hump-back, “a 
maiden cub of last year,” 33 feet long, was taken, yielding 40 barrels 
of oil. At the same time it was stated that it was the first one that 
had been taken “for some years.” Another is mentioned April 26, 
1871, a “cub” 22 feet long, yielding 54 barrels of oil. It was 
accompanied by its mother, which followed the cub and “struck the 
boat with ‘its tail,” but she was not captured. The flesh of these 
young whales is eaten by many of the natives of Bermuda, and is 
considered very good meat, though it always has a flavor of whale 
oil, more or less evident. 
The Royal Gazette, Dec. 23d, 1879, records a large school of 
whales observed off Bermuda. ‘The barque Elsinore, which arrived 
at New York on the 23d of October, from Rio Janeiro, reports that 
six days before, when abreast of Bermuda, she passed through an 
immense shoal of whales. . . . The procession must have been 
at least two miles long.” ‘These were probably Hump-backs migrat- 
ing southward. Apparently they do not visit Bermuda during their 
autumnal migrations. 
Since this date large numbers of Hump-backs, Fin-backs, and 
other whales have been killed in Massachusetts Bay and northward, 
by means of bomb-lances, so that their numbers on the New Eng- 
land coast are now greatly diminished.* 
* In 1859, I personally observed large schools of Hump-backs, with some Fin- 
backs, in the Bay of Fundy. They were especially numerous at the seining 
grounds known as the ‘* Ripplings,” east of Grand Menan Island, towards the 
center of the Bay, where the strong opposed tidal currents make a large area 
of very rough water during flood tide, in which a vast school of large herrings 
were feeding upon an abundant surface shrimp (Thysanopoda norvegica). The 
whales were feeding both on the herring and shrimp, and were so tame and so 
intent on their feeding that they often came within an oar-length of the numer- 
ous boats and vessels engaged in seining the herring, often, indeed, passing 
under the bowsprits of the vessels. At that time they were never disturbed by 
the fishermen, and they rarely came in contact with the nets and boats, which 
they carefully avoided by turning aside or diving under them. There were 
dozens of them in sight at once. Many that I saw were 60 to 75 feet long, often 
exceeding the length of the schooners, alongside of which they often passed near 
enough to be touched with an oar. It was a rare and imposing sight, never to 
be forgotten, to see these leviathans so. tame and fearless of man. One large 
hump-back whale, which was easily recognized by means of a large barnacle 
attached by the side of the blow-hole, so as to cause an abnormal noise in blow- 
ing, had frequented these waters every summer, for more than twenty years, 
according to the fishermen. At that time there were more than 50 vessels fish- 
ing at this place, each with 4 to 6 boats and seines in use. 
