126 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



northern seas, Collett mentions that among the Hebrides the whales were attracted to certain 

 favorable spots, sometimes to the number of at least one hundred, or even more and that they 

 stayed a longer or shorter time, then disappeared. On our New England coasts and off the 

 southern shores of Long Island, where they are merely in transit, there are rarely more than 

 a few together. Thus off Wainscott, Long Island, about the middle of May, 1826, two Right 

 Whales, one a very large individual, were pursued by the local whalemen, and shortly a third, 

 said to be a 40-barrel calf appeared and was captured. Apparently these three were in com- 

 pany. At the same time a fourth was killed off Westhampton, L. I., so that perhaps all four 

 may have constituted a small party moving north together (see Sagharbour Corrector, May, 

 1826). Five Right Whales were killed off Long Island, between South Hampton and East 

 Hampton one day about the middle of April, 1847, indicating the presence of a school of several, 

 at least five (Nantucket Inquirer, vol. 27, no. 47, April 21, 1847). 



Two were seen together in late November, 1864, off Nantucket, perhaps a pair, though 

 there is nothing to indicate this (Nantucket Inquirer, vol. 45, no. 1, Nov. 30, 1864). In April 

 of 1886, a "small school" is said to have appeared off Tuckernuck Island, Mass., and in the 

 course of a few days, three were killed, but how scattered this company was, is not indicated. 



Van Beneden (1885) mentions a note sent him by J. B. Holder telling of the capture of 

 four from a school of six, one a young one, on the American coast. 



Disposition. 



The whalers at the Hebrides in late years have killed a number of these whales, and ac- 

 cording to Collett (1909) they find them not timid, but on the whole easy to approach. Here 

 the bomb-harpoon is used, after the Norwegian method. If a vital spot is struck the whale 

 soon dies; but if only wounded, " it becomes very violent in its movements, to the no small 

 danger of the boats, although it does not attack them; it plunges round in the water like a 

 ball and often gets the line wound several times round its body. Notwithstanding the thick 

 build of its body, it is able to bend it until the head nearly meets the flukes" (Collett, 1909, 

 p. 96). 



Although the Right Whale seems to be in general a most peaceful and inoffensive animal, 

 instances are not wanting, to show that it is capable of inflicting damage upon its pursuers 

 by rising beneath their boat, smashing it, and throwing its crew into the water. Whether 

 such mishaps are accidental or whether the whale intentionally makes the effort to rid itself 

 of the pursuing boat is problematical. The Sperm Whale is unquestionably the aggressor at 

 times, and it seems not unlikely that the Right Whale may also on occasion turn against its 

 tormentors. A few such cases are here recorded. 



In Swift's History of Old Yarmouth, Mass., (1884, p. 136) is the brief record that in the 



