LITTLE PIKED WHALE. 277 



of July. A boat's crew succeeded in harpooning the whale, and it towed the boat about for 

 nearly an hour, before it was sufficiently exhausted to allow itself to be killed with an axe. 

 It had been seen in the harbor for most of the day before the capture was undertaken. Its 

 length is given as nine feet, hence nearly the size of the one caught off Nantucket shortly before. 



Major E. A. Mearns sends me the account of the capture of a small whale that was sup- 

 posed to have been a "young Finback," but was perhaps a Little Piked Whale. The incident 

 occurred in Narragansett Bay, R. I., but the exact date is not available. By some curious 

 accident, the whale in rising to the surface caught its head between the stern and the propellor 

 blades of the Government steamer Munroe as it lay at the South Dock. In its struggles to free 

 itself the whale nearly lifted the stern of the vessel out of water. The Captain, seeing that the 

 whale was caught fast, turned on full steam in order to dislodge it. This had the desired 

 result, but the swiftly revolving blades inflicted such injuries upon the whale's head that it 

 rushed upon a shoal at the head of Brenton's Cove and became stranded. It was finally killed 

 there by soldiers from Fort Adams, and after being exhibited at the Fort and in Newport, was 

 condemned by the health authorities. It was said to have been a female, about thirty feet 

 long. 



1889. A female, 22 feet, 8 inches long was captured near Quoddy Head Life Saving 

 Station, Maine, September 6th, and reported to the Smithsonian Institution by Captain A. 

 H. Myers, Keeper of the Station. It is recorded by Dr. F. W. True (1904, p. 193) who mentions 

 that two photographs of it are likewise on file. It is apparently the largest specimen of which 

 there is any accurate record, from the eastern coast of the United States. 



It is odd that another small whale, probably of the same species, should have been killed 

 at about the same time in Rhode Island waters. The circumstances were communicated by 

 (then) Lieutenant Wirt Robinson to Major E. A. Mearns, to whom I am in turn indebted for 

 the note. The whale was killed September 5th near Fort Adams, and was said to have teen 

 about 27 feet long with whalebone eight or ten inches long. Lieutenant Robinson spoke of 

 another whale 30 to 32 feet long that was rammed by his launch in February 1900, and after- 

 ward ran aground at Fort Adams. There is nothing to indicate its identity, however. 



1893. In July of this year a female, 15 feet, 4 inches long, became entangled in the nets 

 of the fishermen near Portland, Maine, and was exhibited in that city. Dr. F. W. True has 

 published (1904) an account with the measurements of this specimen, as furnished him by 

 Joseph P. Thompson, Esq., Vice-President of the Portland Society of Natural History. 



1896. What appears to have been a Little Piked Whale entered one of the fish weirs 

 at Provincetown, about May 7th, and was at once dispatched by the owner. It is spoken of 

 as "a young Finback about 25 feet long" and was estimated to yield not more than two barrels 

 of oil (Nantucket Journal, vol. 17, no. 32, May 9, 1895). 



1904. A Finback Whale about 30 feet long was reported by the coast guards "dis- 



