58 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST 
dom seen in Behring Sea south of the fifty -fifth parallel, which is about the far- 
thest southern extent of the winter ice ; while in the Sea of Okhotsk the southern 
limit of this species is about the latitude of 54°. In tracing the history of its 
capture, we can revert to the Dutch and Russian fishery about Spitzbergen anterior 
to 1615, and we find that, as years passed on, it was extended westward, on the 
Atlantic side, as far as the icy barriers in Davis Strait, and the adjacent waters 
connecting with the Frozen Ocean. Everything tends to prove that the Balcena mys- 
ticetus is truly an "ice-whale," for among the scattered floes, or about the borders 
of the ice-fields or barriers, is its home and feeding -ground. It is true that these 
animals are pursued in the open water during the summer months, but in no 
instance have we learned of their being captured south of where winter ice-fields 
are occasionally met with. In the Okhotsk Sea and its bays, these whales are 
found throughout the season, after the ice disappears ; nevertheless, they remain 
around the floes until dispelled by the summer sun ; and they are found in the 
same localities even after the surface of the water has again become congealed by 
the rigors of returning winter. 
Right whales were pursued for several years on the North-western Coast, on 
the coast of Kamschatka, about the Kurile Islands, and in the Japan Sea, before 
Bowheads were known to exist in that part of the Arctic Ocean adjoining Behring 
Strait, or in the Okhotsk Sea. In the year 1848, Captain Roys, in the American 
bark Superior, was the first whaling -master to work his vessel through Behring 
Strait into the Arctic Ocean, and there found whales innumerable, some of which 
yielded two hundred and eighty barrels of oil. 
The habits of the Bowhead are, in many respects, like those of the Humpback, 
being irregular in its movements, in its respirations, and in the periods of time 
either above or below the surface of the water. When going gently along, or lying 
quietly, it shows two portions of the body: the 'spout -holes, and a part of the 
back, on account of the high conical shape of the former, and the swell of the 
latter, which is about midway between the spout- holes and flukes. 
The Bowheads of the Arctic may be classed as follows : 1st class — the largest 
whales, of a brown color ; average yield of oil two hundred barrels. 2d class — 
smaller, color black ; yield of oil one hundred barrels. 3d class — the smallest, 
color black; yield of oil seventy -five barrels.* Those belonging to the last named 
class are generally found among the broken floes the first of the season, and they 
have been known to break through ice, three inches in thickness, that had been 
* We do not mean to convey the idea of spe- our acquaintance agree that the difference in size 
Hes when mentioning classes, as all observers of and shade of color arises from difference in age. 
