SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS. 65 



the latter date that the Whales came into the Bay ; probably Webster is right 

 when he names October." 



The second instance referred to by Captain Gray came under his own 

 observation. Whilst taking a walk round the " Heads," one Sunday morning 

 before church, to the best of his recollection early in October, 1872, " I saw," 

 says Captain Gray, " a Greenland Whale within half a mile of the rocks off 

 the South Head ; its appearance and movements were exactly the same as 

 those I have seen in Spitsbergen waters." Accustomed, as Captain Gray 

 has been for many years, to watch the appearance and actions of the 

 northern species of Right-Whale, in the Polar seas, it seems impossible for 

 a man of his great experience to have mistaken any other species of Whale 

 for one of the Balcsumes. 



Of course, there still remains the question as to whether these Whales were 

 the Greenland or Atlantic species, but I think the consideration of the circum- 

 stances under which they occurred, leaves no doubt what the reply must be. 

 Captain Gray writes — " Until you began to question the identity of these 

 Whales harpooned here in 1806, no one had ever had the smallest doubt of 

 their being Greenland Whales," and that had there been any marked 

 difference in their appearance, it would have been at once noticed by such 

 experienced men as those who captured the Whale at Peterhead ; but he 

 adds that " so far as the habits of the Greenland Whale are known, it is 

 contrary to our experience that they should visit our shores at the season of 

 the year at which these Whales were seen here, when we know that the 

 Arctic Whale regularly disappears into the depths of the Polar ice towards 

 the end of summer, where no ships or steamers can follow them." It would 

 naturally be expected that, towards the end of summer the Atlantic Whale 

 would also be approaching the northern limit of its range, and this is precisely 

 the season when all the Whales of this description, of which the date is given, 

 appear to have occurred, except two in a much more southerly locality, 



