404 Mr. T. Soutliwell— >9ome Besults of the 



they until of late occurred liaving rendered their study a 

 matter of extreme difficulty ; for although members of the 

 family have long been more or less familiar objects in all 

 quarters of the globe, the only opportunities for their scientific 

 study have been the accidental stranding of individual 

 cxamjdes on the shores of civilized countries ; and these events 

 have too often occurred in desolate regions, far from the reach 

 of a competent authority, or even of individuals capable of 

 recording the features essential to the due recognition of their 

 species. It thus happened that, maiidy owing to hasty 

 deductions from insufficient materials, species were unduly 

 multiplied and an almost inextricable state of confusion 

 arose; this, happily, through the recent labours of British 

 and Continental cetologists, has at last been reduced to 

 comparative order. 



One great aid to the study of these animals has been the 

 perfecting by a Norwegian seaman, Captain Svend Foyn, 

 of Tonsberg, of an apparatus by which these giant whales, 

 hitherto regarded as too dangerous to be attacked by the 

 methods employed in the capture of the Polar whale, could be 

 successfully overcome, and this (although it cannot, in one 

 respect, be regarded otherwise than with extreme regret, seeing 

 that it risks the eventual extermination of these interesting 

 animals) has been the means of providing abundant materials 

 for a critical study of the various species — facilities which have 

 been duly utilized by the naturalists of Euro])e and America. 

 The whales when captured are towed to the various shore- 

 stations, where their carcases are converted into oil and 

 manure. 



1 may here remark that one of the results of the prosecu- 

 tion of this industry is the revelation of the astonishing- 

 numbers in which these animals occur in summer in the 

 North Atlantic — a result altogether unlooked for, except 

 perhaps by the far-seeing Capt. Foyn ; and especially has 

 this been the case with two species, Rudolphi's- Rorqual and 

 the Blue Whale (B. Sibbaldii), which had been regarded as 

 extreme rarities. 



I need not dwell fuither on this portion of the subject than 

 briefly to chronicle the development of the fin- whale fishery; 

 the success of Herr Foyn soon led to his example being 

 extensively followed, and on the expiration of his patent in 

 1882 many other companies were formed to hunt from the 

 Finmarken and Murmansk! coast, till the Norwegian govern- 

 ment enacted restrictions which, added to the growing scarcity 

 of the whales, caused the opening of fresh stations in 

 Iceland, where the whalers had greater freedom of action, 



