138 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



bar near Capaum Pond, Nantucket. By the time a boat had been manned and sent in pursuit 

 from the shore, the whale had freed itself and headed back to deeper water. Although closely 

 pursued it finally escaped (Inquirer and Mirror, Nov. 11, 1876). 



1877. — A "large scrag whale" was seen in the outer bay of Nantucket about the first 

 of November (Inquirer and Mirror, Nov. 3, 1877). 



1884. — About the last of March, Right Whales were seen off Long Island. Crews put 

 off in pursuit of a large whale and her calf, but after being led twenty miles out to sea, were 

 forced to rehnquish the chase (Nantucket Journal, Apl. 3, 1884). 



1886. — About the middle of April a small school of Right Whales appeared off Tuckernuek 

 Island, Mass., and seems to have remained in the neighborhood a week or more. At all events 

 Right Whales were sighted on several subsequent days. The report states that a small school 

 of whales was first seen off Smith's Point, and on their reappearance two days later, a boat 

 was sent in pursuit. A 60-barrel Right Whale was soon struck and it at once headed to sea, 

 towing the boat at a lively pace. When about thirty miles from land, the men deemed it best 

 to cut the line, as a thick fog had come on, and with difficulty they found their way back to 

 Muskeget. Four days later, whales were again sighted off shore, and very soon a 40-barrel 

 whale was struck and killed. This whale almost at once sank in eleven fathoms of water, 

 so that the crew was obliged to fasten a buoy to it until it rose the following day by reason 

 of the gases generated through decomposition (Nantucket Journal, Apl. 22, 1886). A later 

 report states that all told three Right Whales were killed and brought to Tuckernuek, and 

 that the first whale struck and lost, was later picked up and towed into New Bedford. The 

 yield from the three whales was about 125 barrels of oil and 1500 pounds of whalebone (Nan- 

 tucket Journal, Apl. 29, May 6, 1886). Near the last of April, a school of about twenty-five 

 whales appeared in the same vicinity, and the schooner Glide put to sea in pursuit, but returned 

 without having made a capture. Shortly after the vessel's departure from Miacomet Rip, 

 three large whales appeared and for several hours were seen near where the Glide had been 

 anchored (Inquirer and Mirror, May 8, 1886). Again, about the 10th of May, a Right Whale 

 was seen off Siasconset, Nantucket Island. It followed the shore line for a long distance within 

 one or two hundred yards of the beach, occasionally rising to blow. So clear was the water 

 that the whale was plainly visible from the bluff as it swam at no great dejjth l^eneath the 

 surface (Nantucket Journal, May 13, 1886). This is the largest visitation of Right Whales 

 to our coast of which we have any record in recent times. 



The Nantucket Journals of April, 1887, have several other references to whales seen off the 

 coast of the island, but there is no clue to the species. 



1887. — Mr. J. Henry Blake notes that a bull Right Whale, taken this year at Province- 

 town, made seventy barrels of oil, and measured 47 feet in length. 



1888. — Two Right WTiales were killed in Massachusetts Bay, off Provincetown, about 



