28 THE WHALES AND PORPOISES. 



lias on its back a very small dorsal fin. Being very much elongated, it is a swift runner and hurries 

 through the water with a velocity so great that the whaleman cannot kill them in the same way 

 that they take the other species. I have never seen it dead and kuow but little about it." 1 



14. THE FINBACK WHALES. 



DISTRIBUTION. The Finback Whales of the Atlantic, Sibbaldius tectirostris Cope, and S. 

 tuberosits Cope, are closely related to the sulphur-bottoms. The former is the most common of 

 the larger cetaceans in Massachusetts Bay, and half a dozen or more may be seen in an afternoon's 

 cruise any sunny afternoon of summer. They become abundant in the Gulf of Maine soon after 

 the beginning of April. They swim near the surface, often exposing the back for half its length, 

 and I have several times seen them rise within fifty feet of the yacht on which I stood. Septem- 

 ber 12, 1879, four were swimming and spouting in Provincetown Harbor. 



The skeleton obtained by the Fish Commission in 1875 (No. 16045, U. S. N. M.) belongs to 

 the species whose name heads this paragraph. The Museum of Comparative Zoology also has a 

 specimen, taken at Provincetown, forty-seven feet long, which yielded eighty barrels and fourteen 

 gallons of oil. 



MOVEMENTS. Captain Atwood tells us that Finbacks are rapid swimmers and are not often 

 attacked by the whalers. They "run" so hard that the boats "cannot tow to them," and it is 

 impossible to get up to them to lance them. They sometimes strand on the shore, and of late years 

 a few are occasionally killed with a bomb-lance in the spring. One was lanced one autumn, about 

 the year 1868, by boats pursuing blackfish. It was sixty feet long, and made about twenty barrels 

 of oil. The "bone" is shorter than that of the humpback, and is of little value. 2 When lanced, 

 not being oily enough to float at once, they sink and remain at the bottom for a few days, during 

 which time much of the blubber is eaten off by sharks. They yield very little oil. 



ABUNDANCE IN NEW ENGLAND. Two ran ashore some years ago in Provincetown Harbor, 

 one of which yielded fourteen, the other twenty barrels of oil. One killed at Provincetown, though 

 fifty-four feet long and a good fat whale of its kind, yielded only twenty barrels of oil. 3 



THE DUBERTUS. An interesting question regarding the name by which this whalo was 

 known in the early days of the American colonies has recently been discussed. 



The charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, granted in 1663 by Cbarles II, 

 provides, among more important rights and privileges: 



"And ffurther, for the encouragement of the inhabitants of our sayd collouy of Providence 

 Plantations to sett upon the businesse of takeing whales, itt shall bee laweftill ft'or them, or any 

 of them, having struck whale, DUBERTUS or other greate flBsh, itt or them to pursue unto any parte 

 of that coaste, and into any bay, river, cove, creeke or shoare belonging thereto, and itt or them 

 upon the sayd coaste, or in the sayd bay, cove, creeke or shoare belonging thereto, to kill and order 

 to the best advantage, without molestation, they makeing noe wilfull waste or spoyle, anything 

 in these presents conteyned, or any other matter or thing, to the contrary notwithstanding." 



1 IJulli'tiii Musi-inn Comparative Zoology, vol. viii, p. 204. 



*A large Finback Whalo, forty feet in length, got aground on tlie flats near tlio light-house at Wellflcet, ou 

 Wi'dnrsday, l>y the fall of the tide, and ho was killed by cutting a hole in him and then using an oar as a spade. 

 When the tide i* out people can walk around the whale. Semi-Weekly Advertiser, Boston, February, 27, 1872. 



On the 2d of May, 1828, a whale was cast ashore at Whale Reach, Swampecott, measuring sixty fret in length, and 

 twenty-five barrels of oil were extracted from it. LEWIS & NEWHALI, : History of Lynn, p. 3!)1. 



1755. A whalo, seventy-five feet in length, was landed on King's Reach, on the 9th of December. Dr. Henry 

 I !n ri-1 nt I'd rode into its mouth, in a chaise drawn by a horse ; and afterwards had two of his bones set up for gate- 

 posts at his honso in Essex street, whore they stood for more than fifty years. [Opposite the doctor's house, the cot 

 of Moll Pitcher, the celebrated fortune-teller, stood. And many were the sly inquiries from strangers for the place 

 where the big whale-bones were to be seen.] Ibid., p. 330. 



'Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, vol. viii, p. 204, and in letters. 



