THE LAST PHASE OF WHALING 269 



The hunt for the Bottlenose Whale commenced, 

 according to the Norwegian official fishery statistics* 

 in 1 88 1, when a vessel, which was specially fitted 

 out for this fishery, captured thirty-one Bottlenose 

 Whales. In 1884 nine vessels, one of which was 

 a steamer, captured two hundred and eleven Bottle- 

 nose Whales. These vessels were quite small, the 

 average crew being about ten men. The Bottle- 

 nose does not swim in schools, usually a small 

 number of individuals, from three to six, swimming 

 together, keeping to water in which the average 

 temperature is 39 F., i.e., where the Gulf Stream 

 and Arctic waters mix. The first hunter of the 

 Bottlenose was the well-known Scottish whaler, 

 David Gray, who, in 1881, in the steamer Eclipse, 

 captured twenty of this species. The oil of this 

 whale is of superior quality, and the chase for it 

 consequently developed very rapidly, so that by 

 1891 there were seventy Norwegian ships in the 

 trade, killing two thousand whales of this species 

 annually. The Bottlenose, in July, was found 

 between 72 and 64 N. Latitude and 2 and 

 12 W. Longitude, wKere the temperature of the 

 water varied from o to 8 C. In this area the 

 vessels engaged in the chase of the Bottlenose 

 cruised to and fro. It was especially numerous 

 on the boundary of the Gulf Stream and Arctic 

 waters, where the temperature varied greatly in 

 small areas. According to the whalers the Bottle- 

 nose goes north in spring and early summer, in mid- 

 summer it migrates south, where it is captured off 



