WHALES AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION 33 



coast in summer in Davis Strait and Baffin Bay 

 from 62 to 76 N. Latitude, leaving the open water 

 at the end of summer. 



Recently whaling has been tried off the New- 

 foundland coast. In 1902 there were two whaling 

 steamers working in these waters, and from the ist 

 January to the igth April they caught five Hump- 

 backs; but from the 2Oth April to the end of 

 August, over one hundred. They were most 

 abundant in May and June. They probably pass 

 through these waters on their way north. 



The Humpback appears to be distributed into 

 groups or races in the different seas of the world, 

 each group possibly frequenting a more or less 

 limited but still somewhat extensive area. There 

 are two such groups in the Atlantic, one in the 

 north, the other in the south. There may be one 

 (or two) groups in the Indian and several in the 

 Pacific Oceans. Each group has its own migration 

 paths. The North Atlantic group is found between 

 the old and the new world from June to late autumn 

 (or possibly to the following February or March) in 

 high latitudes off the coasts of Greenland, Iceland, 

 Jan Mayen, and northern Norway. In autumn they 

 probably scatter in shoals looking for the best 

 feeding-places. The females are still accompanied 

 by their young. The best feeding-places are 

 probably in the " Florida Current " or Gulf Stream, 

 off the Norwegian coast. Both in November 

 and in February the favourite food of the Hump- 

 back, the small Crustacea Boreo-phausia and Nycti- 



c 



