SEALS AND WHALES OF TILE BRITLSH SEAS. 67 



of the Atlantic Whale, and the circumstances apparently favourable for close 

 observation. On the ist May, 1868, Capt. Alexander Murray, now com- 

 manding the S.S. "Windward," at that time tcading to South Greenland, 

 in the " Sir Colin Campbell," saw near Cape Farewell, several Right- Whales, 

 close enough to distinguish their different features and general appearance. 

 Capt, Murray remarks that, "they are a shorter Whale than the Greenland 

 and much flatter in the crown ; " he also noticed " Barnacles and grass near 

 the blow-holes," and states that from conversations he has had with American 

 shipmasters employed in hunting these Whales, that these parasites are 

 always present in this species, whereas the Greenland Whales are as in- 

 variably free from them. Capt. Murray adds that in 1867 three American 

 whalers came into Cumberland Gulf, one having six, one three, and the other 

 two Atlantic Whales on board, all of which were taken in the summer, a 

 little to the eastward of Cape Farewell ; and, finally, Capt. Gray's brother, 

 who commands the Hudson Bay Company's Steamer, "Labrador," told him 

 that in June, 1879, he saw two of these Whales in lat. 57 N. and long, 'i^-i^ 

 W. ; they were close alongside, and the weather at the time calm : they went 

 away in a south-westerly direction. It would seem, indeed, that this species 

 is not at all an infrequent summer visitor to the open sea, lying to the east of 

 Cape Farewell. 



Two recent instances of the occurrence of this species on the eastern side 

 of the Atlantic are on record, both of which were met with in winter, and in 

 the warmer latitudes of the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea. On 

 the 17th of January, 1854, a young one with its mother appeared in the 

 harbour of St. Sebastian ; the mother escaped, but the little one was caught, 

 and a drawing of it made by Dr. Monedero (reproduced in Bell's * Brit. 

 Quad.,' 2nd Edit. p. 387) ; the skeleton was preserved for the museum of 

 Pampeluna, thence it was removed by Prof. Eschricht in 1858 to the Copen- 

 hagen Museum, for which he purchased it. Also, on the 9th February, 



