154 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [28] 
of course, by their not yet being ready to spawn, that for a long time 
after their arrival in our waters they will stay near the surface of the 
sea. They sport about in the coast waters in a similiar manner (as 
Sars supposes) to the spring herring in the open sea, outside of the 
spawning season. 
Whilst the herring thus swim about on the surface, they are eagerly 
pursued by whales, which divide the large masses of herring into 
smaller schools, and scatter them in every direction. The occurrence 
of these whales is a phenomenon peculiar to our present spring-herring 
fisheries.* They come in large numbers, so that in the beginning the 
fishermen would not venture out for fear of these immense animals. 
During the old spring-herring fisheries but little was seen of these 
whales. On the other hand the large herriag whales, which were quite 
common during the old spring-herring fisheries, are not so frequent now, 
probably because of the circumstance that these two kinds of whales 
are bitter enemies. Our present whales, the so-called stourhval, will 
attack the large herring whale and tear large pieces of fat from its 
sides, for which reason it is frequently called whale hound (hvalhund), 
or fat biter (spekhugger). While the so-called stowr whales follow the 
schools of herring and feed on them, the herring whales have but little 
to fear; still they seem to avoid them, and I have often heard the fish- 
ermen remark that the great herring whales act as if they were afraid 
of the stowr, or great whales, and keep at some distance from them. 
As soon as the masses of spring herring, which has especially been 
the case during the last two years, are ready to spawn, that is in Feb- 
ruary, all this is very much changed. The herring then go deeper and 
seek the bottom for the purpose of spawning; and the great whales dis- 
appear from the scene. The cause of this repeated disappearance must 
be found in the fact that it is too difficult for the great whales to follow 
the herring into deeper waters, or at least that, wher the herring go 
deep, these whales do not find it so easy to satisfy their greedy appe- 
tite. The fishermen corroborate this fact, and say that they have had 
oceasion to observe that the great whales are very unsuccessful in their 
chase of the herring when these have gone into deep water. While 
the great whales are gone the herring whales have again made their 
appearance in as large numbers as during the old great-herring fisheries. 
The spring herring present in the month of January were pursued by 
a large number of great whales, which is precisely what happened dur- 
ing the great-herring fisheries in Nordland ; neither was the great her- 
ring ready to spawn. It must, however, also be recollected that great 
*It is not certain to what species these whales belong. Two kinds are probably 
designated by this name (stourhval): Orca gladiator, la Cep., and Orca Eschrichtii, 
Stp. In January, 1876, a large number of whales were caught near Udsire, one of which 
Mr. Collet (from the description given by Light-house Keeper Lyde) supposes to have 
been the Orca Eschrichtii, and not the Orca gladiator. (See Nyt Magazin for Natur- 
videnskaberne, 1877, vol. xxii, p. 139.) 
