144 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



that temperature is the direct cause, as some have supposed, and that the whales retire from 

 the colder water of the north in order to seek warmer seas to the south. The thick coating of 

 bluljber must tend to protect the whale from extremes of temperature. More likely the ques- 

 tion of temperature is indirectly of importance as it affects the animal Ufe on which the whale 

 feeds, so that more exact data as to the food of this species would probably be helpful in deter- 

 mining the cause for its migrations. The supposed retirement of the pregnant females to the 

 quiet bays of more southern latitudes in order there to bring forth their young, seems also 

 an insufficient reason, since both sexes migrate equally, and the quiet bays are hardly frequented 

 by these animals. As already mentioned the small shrimp, Thysanoessa inermis, on which this 

 whale is known to feed, has been found in January on at least two occasions, in the Wood's 

 Hole region, whereas Bigelow (1914) failed to find it at all during extensive towing operations 

 carried on in July and August in various parts of the Gulf of Maine. It is common in more 

 northern waters in summer, however. These facts may indicate that the Right Whale's migra- 

 tions are undertaken in the pursuit of this crustacean, which is found in our waters in the colder 

 months, but is apparently absent from them in suimner. 



Fossil Remains. — Although bones of whalebone whales are of "not infrequent occurrence 

 on the less elevated terraces of the Pleistocene period on the Lower St. Lawrence," ^ and may 

 represent perhaps three genera, there are but few records of the discovery of such remains 

 within the limits of New England. Several vertebrae, considered "to be those of a Cetacean" 

 were " dug up in a clay stratum, near the bed of a small stream in Machias, Me., ... .at the 

 depth of about eight feet" nearly seventy years ago.^ These were presented to the Society in 

 its early days, and, in 1847, were submitted to Count Pourtales for report, but there is no 

 record of them further, nor is any indication given as to their identity. Since other fossils 

 from these clays are of a comparatively recent type, it is probable that if they were really 

 cetacean, they were of some living species. 



Through the kindness of the authorities of the Peabody Museum at Salem, Mass., I have 

 lately examined a large rib of Eubalaena in an excellent state of preservation, which was dug 

 up at Newburyport, Mass., a few years since. The label indicates that it was found five feet 

 under ground, but there is no record of the exact spot nor of the nature of the soil. It shows 

 no appearance of great age and is very likely modern. The two portions (for the lower end is 

 broken off) together measure 75 inches along the outer curve. 



In a previous century, Zaccheus Macy of Nantucket, writing to the Massachusetts Histori- 

 cal Society^ under date of October 10th, 1792, says that "one time when the old men were 

 digging a well at the stage called Siasconset, it is said, they found a whale's bone near thirty 

 feet below the face of the earth, which things are past our accounting for." ^ 



' Dawson, J. W. Canadian Nat., 1883, new ser., vol. 10, p. 385. 



"- (Jackson, C. T.) I'roc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1847, vol. 2, p. 2.5.5. 



3 Macy, O. History of Nantucket, 1835, p. 263. 



