484 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



STEJNEGER'S BEAKED WHALE 



MESOPLODON STEJNEGERI True 



Mesoplodon stejnegeri True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 8, p. 584, Oct. 19, 1885 (Bering 

 Island, Commander Group, Bering Sea). 



Range: Bering Sea to Oregon coast. 



True, in reviewing the group in 1910, listed eight valid species, 

 to which two have since been added, M . mirus True and M. 

 pacificus Longman. From the evidence of the specimens 

 hitherto reported, it seems that three of these are so far known 

 from the North Atlantic only (M. bidens, M. europaeus, M. 

 mirus), one from the North Pacific (M. stejnegeri), five from 

 the southern oceans (M. bowdoini, M. grayi, M. hectori, M. 

 layardii, M. pacificus), while only one, M . densirostris, is known 

 from so widely separated stations as North Atlantic, Indian 

 Ocean, and Australian Seas. Further captures may at any 

 time add to our knowledge of the distribution of these beaked 

 whales. 



WHALING 



The history of the whaling industry as developed by Euro- 

 peans and Americans has been many times written. The volu- 

 minous literature of whaling would form a library in itself, 

 covering the varied aspects of the undertaking from scattered 

 records of earlier days to the more connected accounts of later 

 centuries. The classic works of Zorgdrager and Martens give us 

 some of the first reports of Arctic whaling, later followed by 

 the well-known works of Captain Scoresby. In the last century 

 came a series of books recounting adventures of round-the- 

 world cruises in search of sperm whales, such as those of 

 Bennett, Browne, Beale, Scammon, and a later host of reminis- 

 cences following the culmination of the industry in the latter 

 half of the nineteenth century. For statistics of whaling 

 vessels, the fine volume by Alexander Starbuck is still a stand- 

 ard source book. There are even many books of recent years 

 on modern whaling, so that the human aspects of the subject 

 are well documented. Perhaps the best summary account in 

 print is that of Sir Sidney F. Harmer (1928) who has treated 

 the matter from a different point of view and shows that the 

 history of whaling may be divided into several periods accord- 

 ing to the type of whale chiefly pursued. 



