222 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



"immense quantities of herring and shrimps"; and in 1899, several Finbacks about March 

 1st were seen in the same waters "in pursuit of scattered schools of small herring." In late 

 April, 1896, a "good-sized school of whales" is reported about Cape Cod following the herring 

 school. In 1880, the school of whales remained much of the summer in the Gulf of Maine 

 and were also reported to be feeding on* sand eels (Ammodytes) which appeared in June in 

 abundance. Again, in late December, 1895, "a large school of herring and whales" is reported 

 in the Gulf of Maine, off Southern Head Station, Grand Manan. 



During the summer months the Finbacks are also feeding largely on small crustaceans, 

 on our coasts, and the herring likewise pursue these. Their presence is therefore an additional 

 factor in attracting the whales. In calm weather these crustaceans appear in vast swarms, 

 tinging the sea with red at times. When the surface of the sea is much ruffled they seek the 

 quieter waters at moderate depths, and apparently are much less evident in the winter months. 

 It is plain that they must be gathered in larger masses when they seek the surface than when 

 they retire to the depths since in the former case their further upward progress is checked by 

 a common barrier. The whales probably find it much easier to engulf them in quantity when 

 thus assembled near the surface, and it seems unlikely that they could successfully pursue 

 them at any but the most superficial depths. Direct evidence is wanting that the Finbacks 

 feed on these shrimps in winter on our coasts, though it may well be that the latter appear 

 during favorable weather. 



To conclude, it seems probable that this whale is largely regulated in its appearance on 

 our coast by the tune when the herring schools are present, particularly during the winter 

 months; while the abundance of the small shrimps and copepods in summer together with the 

 herring accounts for the greater abundance of the cetaceans during the summer and fall. The 

 herring in turn are probably dependent in some degree upon the copepods and other small 

 crustaceans which abound during the warm months in the shallower onshore waters. Whether 

 they both retire in inclement seasons to deeper water beyond the feeding range of the whales 

 is unproven, but seems probable. 



Finback Whaling on the New England Coast. 



While our forefathers vigorously pursued the Right Whale on the New England coasts 

 during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they seldom molested the swifter moving 

 Finback and Sulphurbottom Whales. This was in part because these yielded only a small 

 return of oil and whalebone in comparison with the Right Whale, but chiefly because they 

 were unable to kill them with hand harpoons from an open boat except by some lucky chance. 

 For so swift and strong are these leviathans that unless at once lanced in a vital part, it is 

 almost impossible to tire them out or work the boat up again within striking distance. 



