SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITLSH SEAS. 6i 



The Right- Whale is believed by Eschricht and Reinhardt to bring forth 

 its single young one (rarely two) about the end of March or beginning of 

 May, and the time of gestation to be thirteen or fourteen months, so that it 

 will bring forth only every other year ; Scoresby considers that they go eight 

 or nine months, and bring forth in February or March.* The young one is 

 supposed to be suckled for twelve months, during which time the baleen is 

 gradually developed. In disposition, the Greenland Whale is timid and 

 retiring ; the chief danger in its capture arises from its rapid descent when 

 harpooned ; the line is then carried out with such speed that, should it foul or 

 all run out and not be immediately cut, the boat will be upset or carried 

 under water. Capt. David Gray estimates the speed of a struck or scared 

 Whale at about eight miles an hour, and the ordinary speed at about four 

 miles, whether sounding or along the surface. It has never been known to 

 attack a boat, but accidents sometimes happen if approached too closely in its 

 death " flurry," which is said to be very terrible to witness. Its fondness for 

 its young is such that if the " sucker " be killed the old one readily falls a victim, 

 and the whalers do not fail to avail themselves, for their own advantage, of 

 this amiable trait in its character. 



THE ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE. 



Until recently it was believed that a Whale formerly common in the 

 temperate waters of the North Atlantic was identical with the Right- Whale 

 of the Arctic seas, of which we have just given an account, but Professors 

 Eschricht and Reinhardt have successfully shown, as stated in the previous 



* Dr. Brown, in the paper before quoted, states that they couple from June to August, and bring 

 forth in March or April. See also a note on ' The Time and Manner of the Procreation of some 

 Species of Whales,' in the 'Zoologist' for 1845, p. 1161. 



