GREENLAND RIGIIT-WHAI-E. 383 



Greenland Right-Whale, which is almost invariably found 

 close to the polar ice-fields, although it occasionally ^oes 

 as far south in winter as north lat. 4G°*. Not a single 

 example is known with certainty to have wandered to the 

 European coasts. This species was formerly very plentiful 

 in the seas east of Greenland, hut has been there nearly 

 extirpated by the whalers ; Herr Malmgren did not see 

 one during his recent voyage to Spitzbergen. The 

 principal fishing-ground is now in Baffin's Bay, and 

 according to Dr. R. Brown the Whales are found in the 

 greatest numbers in the vicinity of Eclipse Sound between 

 the months of June and September, returning southwards 

 to winter and produce their young in the southern parts 

 of Davis Strait, Hudson Strait, and ofi' the coast of 

 Labrador (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868). 



One of the best accounts of the habits and chase of the 

 Greenland Right-Whale is that given by the late Mr. 

 Scoresby in his " Arctic Regions." According to his 

 description this species is usually met with either solitary 

 or in pairs, and he reckons its usual pace at about four 

 miles an hour, although it is capable of a much greater 

 speed when alarmed or wounded. At intervals of from 

 five to fifteen or even twenty minutes it comes to the 

 surface to breathe, and remains there for about two 

 minutes. Of late years the introduction of steam and 

 the invention of the gun-harpoon have revolutionized the 

 chase of the Whale, but in its general character and 

 incidents it remains much the same as in the days of 

 Scoresby. When a Right- Wliale is observed the boats 

 are at once; lowered and harpoon after harpoon is fixed in 

 its body till it becomes exhausted and incapable of further 

 diving, when it is attacked with lances. Then succeeds 

 the awful scene of the "flurry" or dying convulsions, 



* " llecent Memoirs on the Cetaceans," published by the Hay Society, 1866. 



