THE SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALE. 3 



form makes its way to the ice of the Northern seas in summer. From May to August, 

 we are told, the females of Balcena australis visit the Continental coasts to calve. 

 The males are seldom caught, as they rarely approach the land. From October to 

 May, on the other hand, the chief whaling ground lies between the Chatham and 

 Norfolk Islands. It is therefore during the Southern summer months that one may 

 expect to find them wandering southward to the ice ; and it was in January, at the 

 height of the Antarctic summer, that Sir James Ross was cruising in these Southern 

 seas. However, the fact remains that, since the days of Sir James Eoss, not one of 

 these whales has been quite certainly seen there, and if the Right Whale still visits 

 Ross Sea, it is certain that it no longer does so in anything approaching the numbers 

 that were wont to come. We ourselves, in the ' Discovery,' saw not one. 



Mr. Bennett, in his "Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe " (1833-36), 

 gives the following details of the species. He says that the barnacles which habitually 

 find a footing on it, incrusting it like rugged rock, do so on account of its sluggish 

 habits in the shallow seas. While at the surface, he says, it spouts regularly every 

 ten or fifteen seconds ; the spout is from 6 to 8 feet high, and is emitted obliquely 

 upwards and forwards. At each spout the nose comes high out of the water, and 

 there is no inspiratory drawback as in other whales, the spout terminating abruptly, 

 so that it can be recognised by ear even in the dark. In June and July, he says 

 that pregnant females are to be found in South African bays, and in September mother 

 and calf go out to sea. 



BAL^NOPTERA MUSCULUS. 



The Rorqual or Firmer. 



Balmwptera musculus, Linn., Syst. Nat. i. p. 106 (17G6) ; Flower, op. cit., p. 5. 



Physalus australis, Desmoulins, Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat., ii. (1822), p. 106 ; Hector, Trans. Wellington 

 Phil. Soc., 1878, p. 336. 



The most striking, perhaps, of all the Antarctic whales both for its abundance, 

 its size, and for the great height of its vertical " spout," is the common Rorqual or 

 Finner, which is said to reach a length of from 70 to 80 feet. It is distinctive 

 also for other reasons. 



While the ' Discovery ' was cruising in Ross Sea we used to watch this huge 

 whale come to the surface again and again to blow, at intervals of 30 to 40 seconds, 

 and from the fact that at each of four or five appearances uo vestige of a dorsal fin 

 was visible, we began to wonder whether we had not found the " Right Whale " that 

 was once reported to be so abundant in Ross Sea. Again and again the " spout " went 

 up into the cold air, a white twelve-foot column of condensed moisture, followed by 

 a smooth broad back, and yet no fin. For some time we remained uncertain as to its 

 identity, till at last in " sounding " for a longer disappearance and a greater depth than 

 usual, the hinder third of the enormous beast appeared above the surface for the 

 first time with its little angular dorsal fin, at once dispelling any doubts we might 



