THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 33 



countered. The ships which were to make this voyage assembled in the harbor of 

 Monterey, from which they started for Cape Mendocino, Januaiy 3, 1603. The 

 resources of the Monterey region are described and among other things are men- 

 tioned " seals, very large, and many whales." : 



Alaska was discovered by Vitus Bering in 1740, and in the account of the 

 memorable and ill-starred expedition which Steller has given us we find several 

 references to whales, the first, so far as I know, for that part of America. After 

 the landfall at Mt. St. Elias in July, 1740, Bering steered northward and en- 

 countered the peninsula of Aliaska and the Aleutian Islands. It was while thread- 

 ing their way through this archipelago that the voyagers noticed the larger 

 cetaceans. 



Steller first remarks on them as follows : 



"From the 20th to the 23d [of August, 1740] we tacked along the Parallel of 

 53. [ now saw whales very numerous, not singly any more, but in pairs, and 

 travelling in pairs with and behind one another and following one another, which 

 provoked in me the thought that this must be the time fixed for their rut." 8 



This observation appears to have been made when the vessel was between the 

 Aleutian and the Shumagin Islands. A little later Steller remarks again : 



"The wind was favorable for us so that toward 2 o'clock in the afternoon 

 [Sept. 6, 1740] we lost sight of the mainland and islands. But the numerous 

 whales which accompanied us, one of which thrust more than half its length up- 

 right out of the sea, made us understand that a storm was brewing." 3 



"The 13th of September [1740] was a bright day. . . . Moreover, many 

 whales were seen playing and we expected nothing good." 4 



1 TORQUEMADA, Monarchia Indiana, i, 1723, p. 717. 



' STELLER, G. W., Reise von Kamtschatka nach Amerika, 1793, p. 42. 



' Op. cit., p. 76. 



1 Op. tit., p. 78. 



