424 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[May, 1906. 



and give a fictitious value to the letterpress which is 

 generally poor stuff enough. Two of these articles deal- 

 ing with the .Shetland Fin Whale fishery, one of which 

 appeared in Temple Bar for .September, 1905, and the 



But a more pretentious article, giving an account of 

 a trip to .Spitzbergen and of the whale fishery carried 

 on thorc by the N'orwegian vessels, has recentlv ap- 

 peared in an old-established journal, which I have for 



The Polar Right Whale (Balama mtjMcelm). 

 'rom nclitnl mfasuremenU hij the lute Cn])t. Diirul Grtnj, of the .S'.S. "Ec/i/)J*f,** vhnler. 



Other in the Illiistralcd Sporting and Dramatic Xai's on 

 the c)th of the same month, are all that can be desired, 

 but in ;i third article, in another illustrated periodical, 

 dealing with a visit to Spitzbergen, the author tells us 



many years read and admired for its usuallv .short, 

 crisp, and well-informed articles; but in this instance 

 the editor has evidently been caught napping, .so far as 

 it relates to whaling, notwithstanding the fact that the 



The Sperm Whale iPhijacttr mncrocrjhalus). 

 From SouthxcelVs " Siah and n ;,«(« of the trifuU Seat.' 



that " the .Sperm Whale, from which the best whale- 

 bone Is obtained ... is. becoming rare! " It 

 would be dilllcult, did one try, to embody an equal 

 amoimt of inaccuracv in so few words. 



editorial chair is usually considered quite other than 

 conducive to somnolence. The author ol the paper, 

 after giving a brief history of the discovery of the group 

 of islands and of the flockinij thither of the various 



