SEALS AND WHALES OF TILE BRITISH SEAS. 53 



southern species, distinct from the northern Right-whale did exist, is proved 

 by Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt in their splendid memoir of the 

 ' Greenland Whale,' a translation of which, edited by Professor Flower, was 

 pubhshed by the ' Ray Society ' in 1866, and of that species we shall give some 

 account further on. 



It has been asserted that the Greenland Whales supposed formerly to have 

 visited our coasts, have been driven north by the increased traffic in the more 

 frequented seas of temperate Europe ; but from the habits of this species as 

 observed on the west coast of Greenland, at the fishing stations established 

 by the Danish Government, and recorded in the memoir just referred to, no 

 confirmation of this theory is afforded. The fishery at these stations was prose- 

 cuted from the shore when the Whales appeared upon the coast in the winter 

 months ; as the spring advanced they followed the receding ice-line, and were 

 seen in summer as far north in Baffin's Bay as ships had at that time suc- 

 ceeded in penetrating, whilst their southward range in winter was always 

 limited by a rather northerly degree of latitude. This, it is shown, went 

 on with the greatest regularity for at least 80 years, during which the Whales 

 constantly made their appearance at the same places, at the same season, 

 without the slightest alteration taking place. The fact of the Whales always 

 moving northward as the ice breaks up, will account for their being found 

 in the spring in different latitudes ; thus, on the Greenland coast, they are 

 found, at this season, in latitude 65° 25' ; but in Davis' Strait, in 61° to 62°, 

 always, however, inseparable from the ice. Messrs. Eschricht and Reinhardt 

 thus conclude : " It seems, therefore, that the Whales have not retreated 

 further north, as they are still found within precisely the same limits in 

 which they were found at the beginning of the persecution, but in numbers 

 so diminished that the fishery will hardly repay the trouble and expense 

 attending it." 



Capt. Feilden, the naturalist to Sir Geo. Nares's Arctic expedition, speaking 



G 



