12 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



of Little Egg Harbor near the residence of Wm. A. Crane. Cope makes it 

 the type of a new genus (pp. 223-24) Agaphelus, and names \\. Agaphelus 

 gibbosus. — Rhoads, 1902. 



General notes on baleen whales of Pa. and N. 'y. — The following relate 

 chiefly to whalebone whales in our limits of the Rorqual and Right Whale 

 species in this list: "In 1688 Phineas Pemberton of Pennsbnry records one 

 up as far as Trenton Falls [Delaware River]." In 1733 " two whales were 

 chased in the Delaware, opposite Philadelphia, but escaped. — Watson's 

 Annals." 



In 1693 Thomas Leaming settled at Cape May, N. J., and that winter went 

 whaling, killing 8 whales, "5 of which they drove to the Hoarkills." In 1691 

 the whaling industry of Cape May was so profitable that the business of a 

 cooper for oil barrels "made the demand and pay for casks certain." — See 

 quotations from MSS. notes of T. Leaming in Geology of Cape May Co., N. J., 

 1857, pp. 175, 176. Master Evelyn's Letter in Plantaganets' " New Albion," 

 1648, says : " There is much variety of . . . fish, whales and grampus," etc., 

 referring by imphcation to the southernmost section of New Jersey. In the 

 " Historical Collections of New Jersey," Barber and Howe, 1865, P- 369, 

 there is a quotation from the manuscript of J. F. Watson, under date of July, 

 1833, which states : "I was surprised to learn from old Stephen Inman, one 

 of the twelve islanders of Long Beach, himself aged 75 years, that he and his 

 family had never ceased to be whale catchers along this coast. They de- 

 vote themselves to it in February and March. Generally catch two or three 

 of a season .... Whalebones of large size are seen bleaching on the 

 sand." On page 41 of the Historical Collections, just cited, we read that 

 whales were "numerous in winter on the coast and in the bay, where they 

 frequently grounded ;" also, that on the 15th of February, 1668, a commis- 

 sion was granted to a Company in Elizabethtown [Elizabeth], N. J., to take 

 whales for 3 years. During that period a whale was cast ashore at Navesink 

 and delivered to the Company. Vanderdonck in his Description of the New 

 Netherlands says : "Whales are numerous in winter on the coast and in the 

 bay, where they frequently ground on the shoals and bars." 



A whale 40 feet long, of a whalebone or baleen species, was taken in June, 

 1874, at South Amboy, N. J. — See Forest and Stream, vol. 2, p. 267. This is 

 probably the one in the Rutgers College Museum, previously recorded under 

 Balaena glacialis. — Rhoads, 1902. 



Mr. H. W. Hand wiites me that a few of the large whales are seen an- 

 nually off Cape May, usually in the early winter. — Rhoads, 1902. 



Great Finback ; Rorqual. Balcenoptera physalus (Linnaeus). 



1758. Balcena physalus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, p. 75. 



