210 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



November 25th, a whale of this species came ashore dead at Point Shirley, Boston Har- 

 bor (T. Dwight: Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1872, vol. 15, p. 26-27). 



1872. — About the 10th of December, a Finback appeared in Provincetown Harbor and 

 at once became the object of pursuit by a boat's crew under the leadership of Capt. Isaac 

 Fisher. After receiving three lance thrusts the whale finally parted the harpoon line and 

 escaped (Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, vol. 53, no. 24, Dec. 14, 1872). 



The Boston Semi- Weekly Advertiser of February 27, 1872, reports a "large Finback 

 Whale, forty feet in length" that got aground on the flats near Wellfleet, Mass. 



1873. — "A Connecticut paper, dated August 16, 1873, states that the skipper of the sloop 

 Annie, of Saybrook, Conn., reports a large school of whales in close proximity to home. Mon- 

 day, while midway between Southeast Point, Block Island, and Montauk, a school of whales, 

 numbering probably thirty-five, was seen from the Annie's deck, gamboling near the Block 

 Island shore, where they had been lured, it is supposed, by the prospect of a good feeding- 

 ground. In the school very few Finbacks or Humpbacked whales were to be seen. The 

 majority were large whales, some of them being not less than 70 feet in length. Boatmen 

 report it as a common occurrence to see two or three Finbacks in company in the race, but the 

 appearance of so many large whales is a new experience" (A. Howard Clark, in Goode's Fisher- 

 ies and Fishery Industries of U. S., 1887, sect. 5, vol. 2, p. 48). 



1874. — During the latter half of October in this year "large schools of whales" (probably 

 mostly Finbacks) were reported seen from Noman's Land, Gay Head, and Cuttyhunk, Mass. 

 "In Vineyard Sound large numbers were seen near the shores and the light boat off Sow and 

 Pigs." On October 23d, ten were seen at one time. One, a Finback, was shot with a bomb- 

 lance near Cuttyhunk. In all four were shot, but they sunk and were not recovered. It was 

 said that the great shoals of herring then in the Sound spawning had attracted the whales 

 (Forest and Stream, vol. 3, p. 188, Oct. 29, 1874). 



1875. — About the 15th of August a whale was washed ashore on the south side of Smith's 

 Island, near Tuckernuck, Mass. The report states that it was a Sulphurbottom, but its 

 length given as 42 feet, would seem to render this doubtful. It yielded but three barrels of oil 

 (Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, vol. 56, no. 8, Aug. 21, 1875). 



1876. — About the 15th of October, a Finback was seen near shore at Quidnet, Nantucket. 

 The same or another Finback was seen in the bay four days later (Nantucket Incjuirer and 

 Mirror, vol. 57, no. 17, Oct. 21, 1876). 



1878. — About the 25th of July a dead Finback Whale was discovered floating off Sankoty, 

 Martha's Vineyard (Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, vol. 59, no. 5, Aug. 3, 1878). 



A "small Finback" was reported as seen for several days in succession off the east side of 

 Nantucket, during the last week of October. It may have been of some other species than 

 that under consideration (Nantucket Journal, vol. 1, no. 6, Oct. 31, 1878). 



