COMMON FINBACK WHALE. 215 



of herring and whales has been off this station" {i. e. Southern Head, Grand Manan) (H. F. 

 Moore: Kept. U. S. Comm. Fish, for 1896, 1898, p. 404). The whales were doubtless Finbacks. 



1896. — A "good-sized school of whales," probably both Finbacks and Humpbacks, is 

 reported about Cape Cod April 23d, following the herring school. At least two Finbacks 

 were killed at this time by Provincetown whalers. 



In the American Museum of Natural History at New York is the mounted skeleton of 

 a Finback captured off Provincetown in April of this year. Figures of this specimen appear 

 in the American Museum Journal (1907, vol. 7, pp. 94, 95). 



A Finback drifted ashore at Nantasket Beach, Mass., on October 5th. It was about 

 sixty-five feet long (Boston Journal, Oct. 5, 1896). 



1897. — On June 2d, a Finback entered Narragansett Bay, and was seen by many resi- 

 dents of Newport and Jamestown, R. I. (Major E. A. Mearns). 



1898. — On October 10th, or thereabouts, "a number of whales" probably Finbacks, were 

 seen in the waters off Great Point, Nantucket (Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, vol. 79, no. 16, 

 Oct. 15, 1898). 



1899. — About March 1st, several Finbacks were seen off Provincetown Harbor, and a 

 fortnight later two large Finbacks entered the harbor itself, in pursuit of scattered schools of 

 small herring. For an hour or two they rushed about in plain view of many fishermen, who, 

 however, made no attempt to capture them (Nantucket Journal, vol. 21, no. 24, Mar. 16, 1899). 



On March 11th, one came into Narragansett Bay, R. I., and was seen by the passengers 

 on the tugboat Monroe (Major E. A. Mearns). 



1900. — On August 28th, a Finback Whale came ashore at Point Judith, R. I. It was 

 51 feet long (H. M. Knowles in letter to Major E. A. Mearns). 



1901. — A note in the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror (vol. 81, no. 30, Jan. 20, 1901) 

 reports that "whales and herring have appeared off Provincetown. The fishermen have 

 caught many of the latter." These, no doubt, were Finbacks, an early school, following the 

 fish. 



About the middle of April, "a number of whales," probably Finbacks, were seen dis- 

 porting themselves in the waters off Great Neck, Nantucket, and Tuckernuck. They remained 

 two days, but no attempt was made to capture them (Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, vol. 81, 

 no. 42, Apl. 20, 1901). 



1902. — Mr. M. C. Atwood, of Provincetown, while aboard the steamer Cape Cod on his 

 way to Boston, saw a Finback come up so close to the vessel that he "could easily have jumped 

 on to him." This was during the summer. 



The Yarmouth Register, quoted by the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror (vol. 83, no. 22, 

 Nov. 29, 1902), reports the stranding of a large whale carcass on the beach at Sandwich in 

 mid-November, and shortly after a second dead whale came ashore at Gloucester. 



