414 Mr. T. Southwell— 5o??2e Results of the 



rience will show the same to be the case with the fin-whales 

 inlial)iting- the North Atlantic Ocean. 



With regard to the recorded measurements of these animals, 

 in some instances they are taken in a straight line, in others 

 along the curves, and till a system is adopted ensuring 

 uniformity, although useful in their way, they cannot be 

 regarded as scientifically accurate, and are therefore only 

 approximately useful for comparison. 



BALJiNOPTERA SiBBALDII, 

 Norway. 



Sibbald^s rorqual, the blaa-hval or blue whale of the 

 Norwegians and sulphur-bottom of the American whalers, is 

 the chief prize of the whalemen; it yields an average of 

 2800 gallons of oil, occasionally even as much as 10,000 

 gallons. Mr. Cocks states that twenty-five years ago 

 Varanger Fjord was a favourite resort of this huge animal in 

 summer, and tliat it penetrated far into the fjord in search of 

 the " kriP^ [Thysanopoda inermis)^ on which it delighted to 

 feed ; all this is now a thing of the past, constant harrying 

 has taught the survivors to keep out to sea, and, in addition, 

 no whales are allowed by law to be captured at a less distance 

 than 7 kilometres * from the shore. 



The time for the appearance of this whale upon the 

 Finmarken coast is, as a rule, about the middle of June, 

 exceptional instances have been known in May, and they have 

 departed by the middle of September — the date of departure 

 probably being dependent on the falling-off of the food- 

 supply, and not due, as was formerly supposed, to the 

 decreasing temperature of the sea. Mr. Robert Gray, when 

 in the ' Eclipse' whaler on April 27tli, met with blue whales 

 in lat. 70° l\' N., and speaks of the partiality of tiiis species 

 for water of very low temperature; its departure^ therefore, 

 from the Finmarken coast cannot be directly attributed to 

 declining temperature. 



Dr. Guldberg describes this species as blue-grey or blue- 

 black above, and sometimes copper-brown when rolling about 

 in the sea ; it has always a more or less pronounced blue-grey 

 colour on the back — hence its trivial name. The underparts 

 are minutely flecked with wliite and grey, but it varies 

 considerably in coloration. U'he baleen-plates are black, with 

 black hairs, about 36 inches long by 24 inches broad at the 

 gum. Mr. Cocks remarks that " the sex of a blue whale (and 

 in a less marked degree it is, I believe, true of other species 



* This fur ten years. 



