WHALES AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION 27 



north as the whales became scarce and shy through 

 excessive hunting, until ultimately the chief whaling 

 grounds were off Iceland and y the North Cape of 

 Norway. The Biscay ans, who called this whale 

 " Sarda " (the Norwegian names were Nordcaper or 

 Slettibakka) hunted it from October to February. 

 In the summer it went farther north where it was, like 

 the Greenland Right Whale, hunted by the Dutch 

 and other early Spitsbergen whalers. In these waters 

 it is now extremely rare. Stranded Nordcapers 

 have been found in the Mediterranean at Taranto 

 and Algiers. The Norwegian whaling records from 

 1884 to 1891 show that this whale is still found in 

 summer in Icelandic waters. Its range is from the 

 'Azores and Bermudas in the south to Bear Island in 

 the north. The whalers distinguished this species 

 from the Polar or Greenland Right Whale as early 

 as 1611, the latter being more valuable and also 

 more easy to kill. The earliest American whalers 

 caught the Nordcaper on the New England coasts 

 in the early years of the seventeenth century. The 

 season here lasted from early November to March 

 or April. 



Before America was colonised it is probable 

 that occasional specimens of this whale were killed 

 by the Indians. Certainly, the earliest colonists 

 captured it off the coasts of New Hampshire, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. 

 The period of prosperity of this whaling ranged, 

 in New England, from 1750 to 1784. The acci- 

 dental discovery of a Sperm Whale off this coast 



