NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. 139 



the 20th of May. Together they yielded about 170 barrels of oil. A few days later a Right 

 Whale about 50 feet long was found dead near the Geofge's Bank and brought to Province- 

 town. It seems to have been one killed the previous week by the steamer A. B. Nickerson 

 (Nantucket Journal, May 24, May 31, 1888). 



In the first week of June, the steamer A. B. Nickerson, while hunting for whales off Cape 

 Cod, discovered a Right Whale with a calf and succeeding in killing them both with Ijonilv 

 lances. The calf soon sank but the old whale was secured and towed to Provincetown. It 

 was a very large one 55 or 60 feet long and estimated at one hundred l^arrels of oil and 1500 

 pounds of whalebone (Nantucket Journal, June 7, 1888). This is an unusually late date for 

 the Right Whale on our coasts. 



1891. — Several Right Whales were seen off Surfside, Nantucket, about the first week in 

 April (Inquirer and Mirror, Apl. 11, 1891). 



1893. — Major E. A. Mearns furnishes me with a note of what was said to have been a 

 Right Whale, about 50 feet in length, that was stranded on Ochre Point, Newport, R. I. The 

 blubber had already been removed by one Mr. Church at Ti\'erton, where the whale had been 

 killed. The carcass was finally sunk at sea by order of the City Council. The exact date is 

 not available. 



1894. — Major Mearns sends me also the record of a Right Whale that appeared off Beaver 

 Tail, Conanicut Island, R. I., in this year. It finally was sighted off Fort Adams, where it 

 was shot and killed (exact date unknown). He adds that Mr. Joshua P. Clark, formerly in 

 charge of the Life Saving Station at Watch Hill, R. I., told him that Right Whales have been 

 seen off Block Island in more recent years, although the most part of the whales seen in those 

 waters are Finbacks. 



1895. — A large bull Right Whale measuring some 42 feet in length, and rated at fifty or 

 sixty barrels of oil, was killed in late March, off Nahant. According to the reports, this whale, 

 or what was believed to be the same individual, first appeared early in the preceding Octol:)er 

 near Hull, Mass., and was usually to be seen in the deep water near Harding's Ledge, or else- 

 where in that part of Bostoii Bay. A crew of experienced men was finally got together, and 

 succeeded in harpooning the whale, which eventually made off with some thirty fathoms of 

 fine attached to a stout cask. Two days after (on April 1st) the whale was found dead 25 miles 

 north of Race Point by the tug Peter Bradley from Provincetown, whither the prize was at 

 once taken. It was later exhibited at Boston (Nantucket Journal, Feb. 7, Mar. 14, May 9, 

 1895). The fact of its having wintered in Boston Bay from October till March, is certainly 

 of much interest if true. The actual substantiation of this belief is, of course, quite out of 

 the question. My friend, Mr. J. Henry Blake, has given me some measurements of this whale, 

 which are elsewhere referred to, and from these he has drawn the subject of Plate 8. 



1897. — Two Right Whales were seen off the Great Neck Life Saving Station, Nantucket, 



