APPENDIX A. 



AT the back of Kelley's watch-maker's shop in New Bedford, 

 there is a place of assembly for the whaling-captains of that city. 

 Perhaps there is no other single spot on the earth so favorable for 

 receiving information regarding the business, or where so many 

 men of the largest experience daily meet. 



Wishing to obtain their views regarding the habits, etc., of 

 whales, I addressed a series of questions to Captain G. A. Covill, 

 with the request that they should be submitted to the captains of 

 New Bedford. The appended letter resulted : 



"Since writing you, I have complied with your request by making 

 known to the captains at Kelley's your desire to obtain reliable informa- 

 tion concerning the habits of the sperm and right whale. I read your 

 letter appealing to them for such information, and any other that would 

 be useful to you in the work you have undertaken. All seem interested, 

 and many express a wish that you may give to the world a book that 

 will not only be interesting but truthful. All agree that such a book on 

 this subject has never been published. To some of the questions you pro- 

 pose there is no disagreement of opinion, while to others there is quite a 

 diversity. 



" To your first question, all agree that the right whale is frequently seen 

 making passage from one feeding-ground to another. He never crosses 

 the equator, and is seldom if ever seen below lat. 25. The right whale 

 of the north latitude is very much larger than that of the south, the for- 

 mer averaging one hundred and fifty barrels, the latter about seventy bar- 

 rels. The polar, or bow-head, whale of the Arctic resembles the right 

 whale, yet differs from him in that it has no bonnet, or protrusion, with 

 deep-set barnacles on its nose : the skin is smoother, the head longer, and 

 the bone in the head longer and smoother, weighing from fifteen hundred 

 to two thousand pounds, the length of the longest bone being twelve feet." 



Question 2. " Opinions are about equally divided, many thinking that 

 both the sperm and right whales can stay under water as long as they 

 choose ; others think they must and do seek the surface quite often, if not 

 at regular intervals. I think the former have the best of the argument, 



