62 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



schooners principally on the west and south coasts of the island, from March 

 to July." 



" On the Californian coast there are about a half dozen whaling stations. 

 From these a constant watch is kept, and if a whale is in sight, row boats go out 

 to fish. These stations are at Punta Banda and at Santo Tomas in Lower Cali- 

 fornia, and in American territory at Ballast Point, at Monterey, at Pigeon Point, 

 and 1 or 2 in Mendocino County. The whales caught on the Californian coast 

 are mostly Gray whales (Graybacks), which are difficult to catch and not very rich 

 in oil ; often half of the whales killed are lost. The best fishing is from Novem- 

 ber to February, at the time when the whales approach the land at the south. 

 From May to October their course is northward somewhat further out at sea." 



In 1882 Dr. J. A. Allen published a valuable bibliography of cetology from 

 1495 to 1840, 1 with critical annotations, and references to the pages on which the 

 names of species and general cetological matter occur. This important guide to 

 cetological literature contains numerous titles of works whose subject-matter is 

 largely or wholly American. 



In 1883 Dr. J. B. Holder, of the American Museum of Natural History, pub- 

 lished a brief but important memoir on the Atlantic Right whales, containing 

 measurements of four American specimens, descriptions of the skeletons and other 

 data, together with several figures of the exterior, whalebone, skulls, vertebrae, etc. 

 It contains also a summary of literature relating to the Right whales, a synopsis 

 of American and European opinion regarding the various nominal species, and a 

 brief bibliography. Too much space is devoted to matters of little consequence, 

 and too small an amount to the descriptions of the specimens examined. In spite 

 of these defects, its value is unquestionable, especially as it is the only paper on 

 Right whales from the east coast of the United States, with comparative meas- 

 urements and details, and good illustrations, which has thus far been published. 2 

 One of the specimens mentioned by Dr. Holder was a skeleton prepared by Dr. G. 

 E. Manigault, curator of the Charleston College Museum, Charleston, S. C. A 

 little later, in 1885, Dr. Manigault gave a fuller description of this specimen in a 

 paper entitled " The Black Whale Captured in Charleston Harbor, January, 1880." 3 



Malm's account of bones of whales collected by the Vega Expedition of 

 1878-80 4 contains numerous woodcuts of portions of skulls of Rhachianectes and 

 of other bones of the skeleton of that whale, with detailed descriptions. 



In 1884 Dr. G. Brown Goode summed up briefly the more important facts 

 regarding baleen and other whales in American waters, adding some new data. 5 



Flower's list of Cetacea in the British Museum, published in 1885, 6 contains 



1 ALLEN, J. A., Preliminary List of Works and Papers relating to the Mammalian Orders Cete 

 and Sirenia. Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the Territories, 6, No. 3, 1882, pp. 399-562. 



2 HOLDER, J. B., The Atlantic Right Whales. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., i, 1883, pp. 99-137, 

 pis. 10-13. ' Proc. Elliott Soc. of South Carolina, 1885, pp. 98-104. 



' MALM, A. W., Skelettdelar af Hval insamlade under Expeditionen med Vega 1878-1880. 

 Eihang, Svensk. Vets. Akad. Handl., 8, No. 4, 1883. 



' GOODE, G. B., The Whales and Porpoises. Fisheries and Fishery Indust. of the U. S., Sect, i, 

 Text, 1884, pp. 7-32. 



* FLOWER, W. H., List of the Specimens of Cetacea in the British Museum. 1885. 



