CHAPTER IX. 
WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE EASTERN NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 
Present knowledge of the large whales of the west coast of North America 
rests almost exclusively on the observations of Capt. C. M. Scammon, made more 
than thirty years ago. The record of these observations, together with some pieces 
of whalebone, bones, etc., was sent by Capt. Scammon to the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. The manuscript was placed by the secretary of the Institution in the 
hands of Professor E. D. Cope, who edited it and published it in the name of 
Capt. Scammon, and at the same time described a number of the species as 
new (83). 
Later, Capt. Scammon published his well-known work entitled Marine Mam- 
mals of the Northwestern Coast of North America (82), in which additional informa- 
tion was given regarding the various species, together with more elaborate figures. 
This work was accompanied by an appendix by Mr. Wm. H. Dall, giving a list of 
species and valuable measurements, references to specimens, ete. 
In 1872 Capt. Scammon published a description of a small Lalanoptera, 
under the name of 4. davidsoni, which had been omitted from the large work 
(81). Very little has been added since Capt. Scammon’s time either in the 
way of new observations or specimens, and the present knowledge of these West 
Coast whales is still very incomplete. 
In 1893 the skeleton of a Humpback whale from the West Coast was exhib- 
ited in the World’s Columbian Exposition. A few notes on it which I made 
at the exposition are given on a subsequent page. Photographs of a Humpback 
killed in Henderson Bay, Puget Sound, were obtained by the National Museum 
in 1896. In 1899 a fine adult skeleton of a West Coast Finback, which had been 
formerly the property of Prof. Cope, was mounted and exhibited in the Wistar In- 
stitute, Philadelphia. The greater part of the material sent to the Smithsonian 
Institution by Capt. Scammon in 1869 and subsequent years is still in the National 
Museum, and has been examined and verified by the writer. 
Observations of the large whales of the western shores of the North Pacific have 
been recorded by Pallas (72, 286-288), Temminck and Schlegel, Gray (53, 96; 54, 
1; 55, 43), Mobius (70), and others. These observations, of course, throw light on 
the identity of the species of the American coasts and the scientific names in some 
instances doubtless have priority over those of Cope. While it is not possible 
at the present time to investigate the identity of the species in the same detail 
as in the case of the Atlantic species, it seems desirable to review the subject in 
the present connection, and to add such new information as has accumulated. 
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