76 SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRLTLSH SEAS. 



in British waters, particularly on the east coast of Scotland. It is the largest of 

 this gigantic family, measuring from 80 to perhaps 100 feet in length. One 

 seen by Herr Foyn he estimated at the enormous length of 133 English feet ! 

 The famous " Ostend Whale," which was found floating dead in the North 

 Sea, in 1827, and taken into Ostend, belonged to this species; its skeleton 

 was long exhibited in this country, and afterwards in America. Dr. Gray 

 says it is now in St. Petersburg, and gives the total length as 102 feet ; as, 

 however, several of the vertebrae are missing, the exact length is uncertain. 

 Professor Turner gives the length of a specimen stranded in the Firth of 

 Forth as jZ feet 9 inches, and the girth behind the flippers about 45 feet : 

 this animal was gravid, but notwithstanding this fact, the bulk must have been 

 enormous. 



Herr Rt. Collett, in his ' Norges Pattedyrfauna,' gives a very full account 

 of this species, as observed by him on the Norwegian coast. In June, 1874, he 

 had the opportunity of visiting Herr Svend Foyn's establishment for whale- 

 catching, at Vadso, and in addition to being enabled to examine three 

 individuals of this species in a fresh state, received much information as to 

 their habits from Herr Foyn and the men engaged in the fishery. This 

 Whale, from its colour, is known by the fishers as the " Blue Whale," and 

 appears to have its home in winter in the open seas, between the North Cape 

 and Spitsbergen. By the end of April or beginning of May it approaches the 

 coast, entering the larger Fjords towards the end of the latter month, to 

 feast upon the enormous quantities of Thysanopoda inermis, then found 

 there ; it is also seen in summer along the coast from Loffoden to the North 

 Cape, and further to the eastward. When the wind is on the land or in any 

 stormy weather, it seeks the open sea. Varanger Fjord is the favourite 

 hunting-ground for this species, and in the last iew years the average number 

 taken there has been thirty ; in 1874, as many as 42 were taken: it leaves 

 the Fjord, however, should stormy weather set in. No specimen examined 



