230 ZOOLOGY. 



molluscks that furnish its food are most abundant. It 

 is a species that is not known in the central parts of 

 the Pacific Ocean, where the depth of water is for the 

 most part incalculable. 



The Cape Whale differs essentially from the Sperm 

 Whale, and most other marine cetaceans, in a habit it 

 has of repairing to the shallow and sheltered waters in 

 the vicinity of land to bring forth its young. In the 

 bays on the South coast of Africa, the visits of preg- 

 nant females for the latter purpose, occur chiefly in the 

 winter months, June and July ; the mothers returning 

 to sea with their calves in September. From this we 

 should infer, that the period of gestation, with this 

 species, does not exceed twelve months. 



The British colonists at the Cape of Good Hope are 

 engaged to some extent in the capture of the Right 

 Whale. They carry on the fishery from the shore, 

 where an observatory is erected on a commanding 

 height. Upon whales being seen, the boats are launched 

 to attack them ; and the dead whales are brought to 

 the land, where the operations of flensing and boiling 

 the oil are also performed. Table Bay was formerly a 

 favourite resort of the Cape Whale: in the year 1832, 

 I noticed fragments of these monsters strewn profusely 

 on the beach at Cape Town. Latterly, however, their 

 visits to this spot have become rare, and whalers find 

 it more profitable to pursue their occupation in other 

 bays, on the same coast. It is to be regretted, that this 

 method of fishing from the shore involves almost solely 

 the destruction of female whales and their calves, and 

 must tend greatly to diminish the number of the 

 species, without any compensating advantage to the 

 whaler. 



Ships engaged in the Southern Right Whale Fishery 



