256 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



Scoresby, the Blue Whale follows the open water to the edge of the ice floes northeast of Green- 

 land, as far as Cherie Island, Nova Zembla, and Jan Mayen, yet "it is seldom seen among 

 much ice" in contrast to the Bowhead. " It inhabits most generally in the Spitzbergen quarter, 

 the parallels of 70 to 76 degrees; but in the months of June, July, and August, when the sea is 

 usually open, it advances along the land to the northward as high as the 80th degree of latitude" 

 (Scoresby, 1820, vol. 1, p. 482). On the European coasts it is found as far south at least as 

 the Bay of Biscay. Some numbers have lately been captured by whaling crews operating on 

 the Irish coast, and sundry individuals have from time to time come on shore in the North Sea. 



Occurrence in New England Waters. 



Within the limits of New England, the Blue Whale is apparently rare. I know of no 

 positive record for it in our waters, yet it undoubtedly does occur. G. B. Goode ^ has recorded 

 as this species a skeleton obtained by Professor Baird at Nantucket in 1875 — No. 16039 in 

 the collection of the U. S. National Museum. The specimen in question, however, is a Common 

 Finback {fide True, 1904). Captain N. E. Atwood of Provincetown, who supplied the notes 

 on Cetacea for Dr. J. A. Allen's (1869) list of the mammals of Massachusetts, had no personal 

 knowledge of it on the Massachusetts coast, but declared that it was said to occur. The fol- 

 lowing instances probably relate to this whale in New England and comprise all the evi- 

 dence of its presence in our waters that I have found. Of themselves they constitute most 

 slender evidence for admitting the species to the Hst of New England mammals. It should 

 probably be regarded as an occasional visitor from more northern waters, but we are still 

 almost wholly ignorant of its true status. 



1755. — A whale, which from its length, seventy-five feet, was probably a Sulphurbottom, 

 is recorded as having been landed on King's Beach, Lynn, Mass., on the 9th of December. 

 "Dr. Henry Burchsted rode into its mouth, in a chaise drawn by a horse; and afterwards had 

 two of his bones set up for gate posts at his house in Essex Street, where they stood for more 

 than fifty years." ^ "Opposite the doctor's house, the cot of Moll Pitcher, the celebrated 

 fortune-teller, stood. And many were the sly inquiries from strangers for the place where the 

 big whale-bones were to be seen." 



1874. — About the middle of October, a number of whales (mainly Finbacks) appeared 

 off the south coast of Massachusetts. One was shot and killed with a bomb-lance off 

 Canapitset that was said to have been a Sulphurbottom, though no details are given (see 

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



1904. — The Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror (vol. 85, no. 19, Nov. 5, 1904) reports that 



' Good», G. B. Fisheries and Fishery Industries of U. S., 1884, sect. 1, p. 27. 

 - Lewis, A., aud Ncvvhall, J. R. History of Lynn, 1865, p. 330. 



