138 



deservedly appreciated, has kindly supplied me with the following 

 interesting particulars of the habits of this species : 



" This, the Eubalsena australis (Caperea antipodarum of Gray), is the 

 Eight "Whale of the Southern Hemisphere. It is essentially a cold water 

 fish, and has an almost unlimited geographical range, following the 

 polar current almost to the edge of the tropics. It is also abundant in 

 the South Atlantic. The American whalers, en route to the Pacific 

 and Indian Oceans, take quantities of this oil at Tristan D'Acuna, the 

 Crozets, and Kerguelen's Land. 



" Some years since, these whales, for the purpose of calving, used to 

 visit the bays and estuaries on the coast of Tasmania in great numbers, 

 arriving in the month of May and leaving about the end of October. 

 May, June, and the early part of July, are the calving months. A few 

 males occasionally accompany them. 



" So abundant were these fish that 100 were killed by the shore- 

 parties at the Schouten Islands in four weeks. Each fish would yield 

 8 tons of oil and 7 cwt. of whalebone. In a season or two after this 

 extraordinary slaughter, for the locality noted was only one out of 

 several fisheries simultaneously in operation, this source of wealth and 

 enterprise departed for ever from our shores." 



