394 WHALES, SEALS, AND SEA-SERPENTS 



The industry is prosperous, and the demands for its 

 products appear to increase continually. It is certain 

 that it cannot long continue without making an im- 

 pression on the numbers of the various species. 



B. musculus, the Finner Whale, forms the bulk 

 (68 per cent.) of the Shetland catch. This is nearly, 

 but not quite, the largest of the Rorquals, reaching a 

 length of over 70 feet. It feeds chiefly upon small 

 Crustacea, especially Calanus finmarchicus. It is the 

 commonest of the Rorquals to be stranded upon our 

 shores. Closely allied to it is B. borealis, or Rudolphi's 

 Whale. This whale, which, till the establishment of 

 these whaling stations, was supposed to be exceedingly 

 rare, is now found to be abundant, but it is curiously 

 irregular in its appearance. In some years for in- 

 stance, in 1906 it nearly equalled B. musculus in the 

 Shetland catch, while in the previous year the latter 

 species was ten times the more numerous. The average 

 length of this whale is a little over 40 feet. Its whale- 

 bone, though short, approaches that of the Greenland 

 Whale in fineness of texture, and is worth about 100 

 a ton, or four times as much as that of the common 

 Finner. 



The greatest of all the Rorquals is B. sibbaldi the 

 Blue Whale whose average length is about 80 feet. 

 This whale is rare at Shetland, but more abundant 

 at Bunavenader, where, on the other hand, the 

 common Finner is less common than is the Shetland 

 one. The Blue Whale is also plentiful at Fseroe 

 and off the coast of Finmark ; it is likewise common 

 at Iceland and at Newfoundland ; and in the whaling- 

 stations of this latter island about 300 were caught in 

 the season of 1904-1905. 



Allied to the Rorquals is the so-called Humpback 

 Whale (Megaptera boops), distinguished by its shorter 



