BLUE WHALE. 255 



brought in to Eide Fjord, Faroe, in June, 189-4. Both were males, four and six feet long re- 

 spectively. The young at birth is about twenty feet long. Turner (1870) records a foetus of 

 nineteen feet in the 78-foot specimen stranded at Longniddry, Scotland. 



Geographic Distribution. 



The Blue Whale is essentially a 'cold-water' species, and is found well into the higher 

 latitudes. Blue Whales occur in the South Atlantic, the Southern Ocean, and the North and 

 South Pacific, and seem to avoid the tropical seas. Various names have been given to those 

 inhabiting these different parts of the sea, but it is still uncertain whether they are vaUd species 

 or whether the Blue Whale is specifically the same throughout the oceans. We do not yet 

 know the range of individual variation nor whether the characters which are supposed to dis- 

 tinguish the nominal species are truly distinctive. A recent writer has pointed out that these 

 large slow-breeding animals must of necessity become differentiated into local races at a much 

 slower rate than those which breed several times a year and of which two or three generations 

 may in the same interval be produced. Among such quickly maturing species the chance of 

 variations arising and being preserved, is greatly increased. 



In the North Atlantic Ocean, the Blue Whale is most common to the northward of the 



Gulf Stream. The specimen stranded at Ocean City, New Jersey, perhaps represents nearly 



the normal southward limit on this side, though no doubt this may become extended. Perhaps 



it will eventually be found to follow the cooler inshore waters as far south as the Carolina coast, 



as in case of the Right Whale. In New England waters it is rare, but northward it becomes 



more frequent. Off Newfoundland, the Blue Whale is common in summer, and in the Gulf of 



St. Lawrence is taken in numbers as far up as Seven Islands. Its seasonal and numerical 



abundance vary much from year to year. MiUais (1906) quotes Captain Nilson, who has had 



much experience in hunting these whales in the Newfoundland waters, as believing that they 



winter scattered about on the Grand Banks. On March 1, 1903, he saw over two hundred 



at intervals between Banquereau and St. Pierre Bank. In March is the best season for the 



fishing on the south coast of Newfoundland, and in May, when the ice goes out from the Gulf 



of St. Lawrence, they enter those waters, though many still remain off the St. Pierre Bank 



and as far east as Cape St. Mary. By the end of June they largely disappear, and give place 



to the main body of the Finbacks. From the end of June to mid-August they follow the 'kril' 



(the small crustaceans — Thysanoessa) out to the south but a few come in again by late August 



and stay 'on the coast' till November in small numbers. Captain Nilson beUeves they are 



not far from the south coast of Newfoundland all the year round. Northward they are found 



at least as far as Davis Straits, the coasts of southern Greenland, and probably into Baffin's 



Bay, but apparently do not pass through Hudson Strait into Hudson Bay. According to 



