HUMPBACK WHALE. 307 



was made by Cope (1865) the type of his Megaptera osphyia. The individual was found dead 

 at sea off Petit Manan Lighthouse, Maine, in July of this year, and was towed to shore. The 

 animal was said to have been fifty feet long. 



1845. — What was doubtless a Humpback Whale, was killed off t he coast of Maine in 

 July, 1845, and its skeleton, "set up at much labor and expense," was exhibited in Boston shortly 

 after. Dr. J. B. S. Jackson made it the subject of brief remarks at a meeting of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History, August 20th, 1845. In the possession of 51 or 52 vertebrae and 

 fourteen pairs of ribs. Dr. Jackson pointed out its agreement with Cuvier's "Rorqual du Cap," 

 a Humpback of the South Atlantic. The specimen was 40 feet long, and a female, nearly adult 

 (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1845, vol. 2, p. 53). 



1852. — A Humpback Whale was captured by a whaUng schooner from Provincetown about 

 the middle of June, some twenty miles southeast of Cape Ehzabeth Light, Maine. It was 

 towed to House Island and flensed. The yield of oil was estimated at forty barrels (Nantucket 

 Inquirer, vol. 32, no. 73, June 21, 1852). 



During the first three weeks of August six Humpbacks were killed by the schooner Hamilton 

 of Nantucket on the Shoals. Five others were struck but lost (Nantucket Inquirer, vol. 32, 

 no. 100, Aug. 27, 1852). 



1859. — On April 22d, a dead Humpback was reported 20 miles south of Nantucket South 

 Shoal by the ship Richmond from Savannah. The note adds that several Humpback Whales 

 had been seen in Massachusetts Bay during the last week of April (Nantucket Inquirer, vol. 43, 

 no. 32, April 29, 1859). 



During late July and early August of this year. Professor A. E. Verrill, while engaged in 

 marine investigations about Grand Manan, "personally observed large schools of Humpbacks, 

 with some Fin-backs in the Bay of Fundy. They were especially numerous at the seining 

 grounds known as the 'Ripplings,' east of Grand Manan Island, towards the center of the Bay, 

 where the strong opposed tidal currents make a large area of very rough water during flood 

 tide" (A. E. Verrill: The Bermuda Islands, 1902, p. 275). 



1863. — During the last week of October of this year, "three large Humpback Whales" 

 were seen on Nantucket Shoals by the crew of the schooner Samuel Chase. On learning of this. 

 Captain Patterson of Nantucket set out in the Rainbow in the hope of maldng a capture but 

 as nothing further is chronicled, he was probably unsuccessful (Nantucket Inquirer, vol. 43, 

 no. 47, Oct. 31, 1863). 



1877. — The Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror (vol. 58, no. 15, Oct. 31, 1877) relates a singular 

 accident that befell a citizen who was coot shooting from a dory off Gunner's Point, South 

 Plymouth, Mass., on October 30th. A Humpback Whale rose and spouted some distance off, 

 and on again coming to the surface, it rose directly under the boat, oversetting it and tipping 

 its occupant into the water. Fortunately he was quickly rescued by some men in another dory. 



