THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. Ill 



land southward. For many years it formed the object of a more or less irregular 

 fishery in Massachusetts Bay, and considerable numbers of individuals have stranded 

 at various points on the coast, the skeletons of some of which have been preserved 

 in the museums of the United States. One of these skeletons was described by 

 D wight in 1872 (35), and we have endeavored to show that the type of Cope's 

 -B. tectirostris also belonged to this " Common Finback " of American waters 

 (see p. 87). 



In 1899, having learned that a whaling company, known as the Cabot Steam 

 Whaling Company, was engaged in fishing for Finbacks on the east coast of New- 

 foundland, I obtained the permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 

 to visit the island for the purpose of making observations on the various species 

 captured. Through the kindness of Messrs. Harvey & Co., of St. John's, New- 

 foundland, agents of the whaling company, I was given every facility for the study 

 of the whales taken in Notre Dame Bay and brought into their station at Snook's 

 Arm in that bay to be stripped of blubber and whalebone. I remained at the 

 station three weeks, and examined with considerable care 25 whales which were 

 brought in. The capture of the whales was prosecuted in the same manner as on 

 the Norwegian coast, and indeed a large proportion of the stockholders in the com- 

 pany were Norwegians, the steamer used in pursuing the whales was built in 

 Norway, and the captain and a majority of the crew were Norwegians. Through 

 the courtesy of Captain Bull, who was in command of the steamer Cabot, I was 

 permitted on several occasions to witness the chase from a favorable station on the 

 bow of the boat, where I could observe the motions of the whales in the water, 

 the effect of the bomb-harpoons, and the modus operandi of securing the dead 

 whales to the steamer's side and towing them to the station. Capt. Bull did 

 everything in his power to assist me in my work, and gave me much valuable 

 information concerning whales in American, Norwegian, and Japanese waters, from 

 his own observations. 



An important part of the works at the Snook's Arm station was a large 

 inclined platform, or slip, upon which the whales were drawn up, one at a time, 

 completely out of the water, thus affording excellent opportunities for close 

 inspection. 



I soon ascertained that all the whales taken at this station were of two kinds, 

 a Finback and a Humpback. The Finback was much the more abundant at the 

 time of my visit, in August, but I was informed by Capt. Bull that the Humpback 

 arrived in large numbers later in the year. A Finback was already in the slip at 

 the time of my arrival at the station, and I was not long in determining that I had 

 to do with a species closely allied to, or identical with, Balcenoptera physalus. As 

 each individual was drawn up on the slip, I measured it, using a uniform schedule 

 of measurements, and photographed it from one or more points of view, and made 

 as copious notes as circumstances would permit on its color and other characters. 

 As the whaling crew was eager to cut up the whales the moment they were drawn 

 out on the slip, observations had to be made with all celerity, especially as the men, 

 by aid of a steam winch, stripped off the skin and blubber in an incredibly short 



