OCEANIC MAMMALS 503 



whale] had become excessively rare, and for many years it 

 was believed to be extinct" (Harmer, 1928). "About 1850 the 

 Biscay Whale began to re-appear . . . and by 1880 it had 

 become the object of a moderate whaling industry off the 

 Eastern United States. Some ten years later a few individuals 

 began to be caught by Norwegian vessels off Iceland and the 

 Faeroe Islands; and since that time an appreciable number 

 have been taken by whaling stations off the West of Ireland 

 and the Outer Hebrides. " Catches made at the Scottish sta- 

 tions from 1908 to 1914 totaled 67, or an average of about 10 

 a year, and 18 were taken by Irish stations between 1908 and 

 1910. The Scottish catch was made chiefly in June. Thus 

 there is evidence that the North Atlantic population had re- 

 covered slightly after about a century of comparative immu- 

 nity from pursuit, but it has certainly not again reached its 

 former abundance nor does the right whale now frequent the 

 old wintering area on the Biscay coast. 



In the first half of the last century, when whaling ships from 

 Massachusetts made round-the-world voyages of several years 

 in pursuit of whales, they took right whales on the coasts of 

 South Africa and again in the North Pacific, although most of 

 their hunting was in warmer waters for sperm whales. The 

 North Pacific population seems likewise to have been migra- 

 tory, for according to Scammon (1874) some were taken as far 

 south as "the Bay of San Sebastian Viscaino, and about 

 Cedros or Cerros Island, both places being near the parallel of 

 29 north latitiude" in northern Lower California, from 

 February to April, after which they were taken from April to 

 September on the "North-west Coast." "In former years," 

 Scammon wrote, "the Right Whales were found on the coast 

 of Oregon, and occasionally in large numbers; but their chief 

 resort was upon what is termed the 'Kodiak Ground,' the 

 limits of which extended from Vancouver's Island northwest- 

 ward to the Aleutian chain, and from the coast westward to 

 longitude 150. In the southern portion of Behring Sea, also 

 upon the coast of Kamschatka, and in the Okhotsk Sea, they 

 congregated in large numbers." On the western side of the 

 Pacific they came southward at least to the seas about Japan. 

 Scammon states that the average yield of oil of the North 

 Pacific right whale is 130 barrels, but in earlier days individuals 

 of large size might give twice that amount. So vigorous was 



