JVorth-Atlantic Fin- Whale Fishery. 



419 



the bulk (12) being killed in May, 21 in all; of these 10 

 were males, 4 females, and 7 sex not recorded. By the table 

 it will be seen that the maximum of the Norwegian specimens 

 of both sexes considerably exceeded that of those taken in 

 Newfoundland, but in other respects (colour, dermal tubercles, 

 dorsal and pectoral fins, and flukes) they present no material 

 difference. Dr. True is of opinion that the various nominal 

 species into which the humpbacks of the North Atlantic have 

 been divided are all referable to one species, and in this he 

 agrees with European cetologists; but considering the 

 extensive range thus assigned to this whale it seems probable 

 that the individuals inhabiting, say, the West Indies or the 

 Californian coast are racially distinct from those frequenting 

 the Greenland seas. 



Of 2893 fin-whales killed in Norway, 23(3, or 8-16 per cent., 

 were humpbacks. 



Baljsnoptera bokealis (Lesson). 

 Norway. 

 This species, known to the Norwegian whalers 



the 



sejhval (coal-fish whale), until the establishment of the 

 Finmarken fishery believed to be of excessive rarity, is found 

 in varying numbers, singly or in schools of perhaps fifty 

 individuals, every summer in the months of May and June oiF 

 the coast west of the North Cape. Up to tiie year 1885 it 

 could only be regarded as a straggler eastward of that cape. 

 In the year mentioned, however, Mr. Cocks was assured that 



28* 



