288 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXIV, 



only single individuals, at many years' intervals, have strayed thither, and 

 it is not very probable that Mr. Bachstrora really had an opportunity of 

 seeing one." 1 



These authors go on to state that Scoresby, knowing that the Greenland 

 Whale, "made for seas filled with ice," was not likely to "have appeared 

 regularly far down in the Atlantic along the coasts of France and Spain," 

 attempted to explain the accounts of the old Basque whale-fishery on the 

 ground that it was based on the capture of Fin-whales. Cuvier, well aware 

 that such an explanation was inadmissible, "accordingly did not fall into 

 Scoresby's error, but, following his authority in supposing the 'Nordkaper' 

 and the ' Greenland whale ' to be the same animal, he was led into the mis- 

 take of rejecting what was right in Scoresby's reasoning, and of setting forth 

 the older theory that the whale has been gradually driven up into the Arctic 

 Sea, in all its crudity." 2 [Here follow quotations from Cuvier's writings on 

 this point, giving his reasoning in the matter.] 



RECOGNIZED AS A DISTINCT SPECIES BY THE 18th CENTURY SYSTE- 



MATISTS. 



The Nordkaper was introduced into systematic zoology by Klein, in 

 1741, 3 under the name Bal&na cjlacialis, but evidently as a composite spe- 

 cies, having in part reference to the true Greenland Whale. He makes 

 of it three varieties, viz: a, australis "Eisfisch," Zorgdrager; 6, occiden- 

 talis = "Zud-Eisfisch," 4 Zorgdrager"; c, borealis = "Nordkaper," Zorg- 

 drager. The last can alone certainly refer to the Nordkaper, and his account 

 of it is, in full, as follows: "C. Borealis; Nordkaper, Ejusdem [i. e., Zorg- 

 drager]. Vescuntur & esca Balsenae verse & Harengis &c. Adeps earum 

 majoris est consistientise; ideo non adeo sollicite qvseruntur. Figuram 

 Borealis vid Eph. N. C. G. Dec. II, An. VII, Obs. XXI, Optamus 

 meliorum." Klein's Balcena glacialis, c. borealis, is therefore the Nord- 

 kaper of Zorgdrager, which has been already considered. 



Brisson, in 1756, gave 5 it a far better introduction under the name 

 Balcena islandica, or "La Baleine d'Islande." Although he cites only 

 Klein (as above) and Harrebow's Anderson, he presents its characters, as 



1 Lacepede does not say who Mr. Bachstrom was ; nor have we been able to find any other 

 traces of such a person. He can scarcely have had any appointment in the Danish factories,, 

 and in the list of the missionaries of the brethren in Greenland, given by Crantz, the name of 

 Bachstrom is not found. He was most probably on board a whaling ship, as the words of Lace- 

 pede would seem to imply." 



*^ 2 0m Nordhvalen (fc. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skr., 5 Raekke, Naturvidensk. og Math. 

 Afd., V, 1861, pp. 463, 464); Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea, 1866, pp. 39-41. 



3 Hist. pise, nat., Miss, ii, 1741, p 12 



4 On Zorgdrager's 'Ziudys-Vissch," see Eschricht and Reinhardt, Om Nordhvalen, p. 463; 

 Recent Mem. on Cetacea, pp. 25, 26 



5 Reg. anim., p. 350. 



