114 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



Three foetuses found on the days immediately preceding my arrival at the 

 station were as follows : 



Date. Length. Sex. 



Aug. 3 7 ft. ii in. ? 



" " 9 " o " $ 



"4 6" ii " $ 



The smallest sexually-mature female taken at Snook's Arm in 1899, as 

 indicated by the presence of a fcetus, or of milk flowing from the mammae, was 

 61 ft. 10 in. long, but as there is an interval of 4 ft. 4 in. between this length and 

 the length of the largest female without foetus (57 ft. 6 in.), it may be supposed that 

 the real minimum of maturity is somewhat less than as above given. That this 

 is quite surely true is indicated by the measurements of total length obtained by 

 Cocks from the Norwegian whalers (18, 9 Sep.). Cocks cites 25 females as 

 containing foetuses. These varied in length from 76 ft. 3 in. to 55 ft. 7 in., 1 the latter, 

 therefore, representing the minimum. 



The next largest specimen containing a fcetus was 57 ft. 8 in. long. 8 The mean 

 length of the 25 specimens was between 67 ft. and 68 ft. and the average length 65 

 ft. 11 in. 3 



Revising the calculation of average length of females at Snook's Arm, by 

 throwing out the two respectively 54 ft. and 50 ft. 7 in. long, as most certainly 

 immature, we have 63 ft. 10 in. as the average for mature females. 



A second station of the Cabot Steam Whaling Company was established in 

 the fall of 1899 on the south coast of Newfoundland in an arm of Hermitage Bay, 

 recently named McCallum Bay. The station received the name of Balena. The 

 records of this station, which were kindly placed at my disposal, show that 15 

 Common Finbacks (all males but one) were taken there during the year 1900, and 

 11 during the year 1901, to July 3d. Adding these 26 specimens to the 25 meas- 

 ured at Snook's Arm in 1899, the average total length for the whole 51 specimens 

 of both sexes is 59 ft. 1 T ^- in. 4 



These various calculations are brought together on page 115 for comparison. 



1 74 to 54 feet, Norwegian. 

 9 56 feet, Norwegian. 



1 The following are measurements of females stranded on the European coast, which according 

 to the records contained foetuses: 



Date. Locality. Length. Authority. 



1878 Monte Rosso, Italy 22 m. Van Beneden 



1879 Groix Id., France 20.8 m. Pouchet 

 1859 Port Vendres " 20 m. Van Beneden 

 1863 Cape Creux, Spain 19.5 m. 



The smallest of these, 19^ metres, or 63 ft. n^V i n -, is considerably larger than the Snook's Arm 

 minimum. 



Out of no records of strandingson the coasts of Europe, which I have collected, the four cited 

 above are the only ones in which the presence of a fcetus is noted. 



*The average total length of the 14 males taken at Balena station in 1900 was 55 feet 7 T \ in. 

 The length of the single female was 59 feet. The sex of the specimens taken in 1901 was not 

 recorded. 



