NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. 137 



there were fitted for a few days' whaling cruise about the shore. Two whales were killed in 

 the harl)or and a third escaped during tlie latter part of April. The record does not indicate 

 what species of whale is meant, but some at least may have been Right Whales. 



1854. — A30-barrel Right Whale was struck off Southampton, Long Island, on April 29th, 

 (Inquirer, May 10, 1854). This whale proved to be a fighter, and turning on his pursuers, 

 demolished their boat and though mortally wounded, injured several of the whalers. 



About the middle of December, a dead Right Whale, 48 feet long, drifted ashore at the 

 mouth of Sandwich Harbor, Mass. The blubber was said to be seven inches thick, and the 

 oil would amount to thirty or forty barrels. A harpoon found in the whale was supposed to 

 have been the cause of its death. This whale was probably the one struck in Provincetown 

 Harbor on December 11th, and subsequently lost through the parting of the line (Inquirer, 

 Dec. 20 and 25, 1854). 



1855. — A "'longshore whale" was captured off Southampton, Long Island, on April 

 16th, by one of the whaling companies. It was brought to shore for trying out the oil, of 

 which about thirty barrels were expected (Inquirer, April 25, 1855). From the amount of 

 oil, and the fact that the carcass was floated ashore, this was doubtless a Right Whale. 



1858. — A 40-barrel whale was killed off the coast of Southampton, Long Island, about the 

 first of March (Inquirer, Mar. 5, 1858). A second Right Whale, which yielded about thirty 

 barrels of oil, was killed off East Hampton, Long Island, in the latter part of November, by 

 boats from the shore. In the last week of the same month, a large Right Whale appeared 

 in Provincetown Harbor, and though several times fired at with harpoon guns, eventually 

 escaped (Inquirer, Nov. 30, 1858). 



1863. — A large Right Whale appeared off the south coast of Nantucket, a short distance 

 from shore, about the 10th of November, but was not molested (Inquirer, Nov. 14, 1863). 



1864. — A Right Whale was killed in Cape Cod Bay, in April of this year. It was said to 

 have been 48 feet long, and to have yielded eighty barrels and fourteen gallons of oil (which sold 

 at (^1.14 per gallon) as well as a thousand pounds of whalebone valued at <81,000. The skele- 

 ton of this whale is now mounted in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge. 

 Mr. J. Henry Blake has kindly informed me that according to one of the captors of this whale 

 it was actually killed within about four miles of Gurnet Lights, Plymouth, and towed by the 

 Wasp to Provincetown. 



In the last week of November, two Right Whales were seen lazily moving about at the 

 north end of Nantucket, inside the bar. A boat was manned and went in pursuit, but was 

 unable to get fast (Inquirer, Nov. 30, 1864). 



1870. — A Right Whale with a calf, entered Provincetown Harbor about the first of March, 

 and was at once pursued by a boat from the shore. In lancing the whale, the line was cut 

 and the animal escaped (Inquirer and Mirror, Mar. 6, 1870). 



1876. — About the first week in November a 40-barrel Right Whale grounded on the 



