Animal Life observed during Voyage to Antarctic Seas, 353 
like the Antarctic Fur Seals at the beginning of the century, 
will undoubtedly be exterminated. 
Of cetaceans we saw an immense number. We constantly 
met with great schools of dolphins and porpoises, as well 
as, on several occasions, with whales, but I must confess that 
I found identification very difficult. At Port Stanley I secured 
a ground porpoise, the skeleton of which is now in Univer- 
sity College Museum, Dundee, and Mr Burn Murdoch has 
kindly lent me some drawings which he made on the spot, 
to show you this evening. It was a curious fact that in 
almost every case the schools of dolphins and porpoises were 
going, more or less, in the direction of the vessel, and one 
wonders if there were any particular reason for this. Was 
it migration? Were those we met with in October and 
November migrating southward at the approach of the 
northern winter, and were those we met with south of the 
line in November and December moving southward with 
the southern summer? Similarly, were those we met with 
in southern latitudes in March and April fleeing from the 
southern winter, and those that passed us in April and May 
going northward with the approach of the northern summer? 
Whilst in the ice we met with three kinds of whales— 
Finners (probably Physalis Australis), others strongly resem- 
bling the Pacific Hunchback Whale, and Bottle-nose Whale, 
two of which were captured by the Norwegian vessel. 
Besides these, there were present in considerable numbers 
grampus or sword-fish (Orca), conspicuous by its long 
dorsal fin. Ross says that in Erebus and Terror Gulf, on New 
Year’s Day 1843, within one mile of the position we held 
on Christmas Eve 1892 (viz., in 64° §. 55° 28’ W.), “ Great 
numbers of the largest sized black whales were lying upon 
the water in all directions: their enormous breadth quite 
astonished us.” Elsewhere, also, he talks of a whale 
“sreatly resembling, but said to be distinct from, the Green- 
land Whale.” It was chiefly upon the authority of these 
two statements, in addition to some others made by Ross, 
that the Dundee and Norwegian whaling fleet ventured to 
the south last year. None of the vessels saw any sign of a 
1 Called ‘“‘ Blue Whales” by Captain Larsen of s.s. ‘‘ Jasen.” 
2 “ Ross’s Voyage,” vol. i., p. 169. 
