418 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



what is roughly called " pistol-shot." At length the whale mis- 

 calculated its distance while under water, and came up right 

 under our bows, heading from us ; the harpooner immediately 

 pulled the lanyard attached to the trigger, but the cap snapped ! 

 As soon as the gun was recapped we continued hunting, but the 

 whale did not give us another chance, though we were never very 

 far away. At last, soon after G p.m., we gave this whale up as 

 a bad job, and went after another which we saw at some little 

 distance. This whale (or it may have been a different one 

 again) proved on approaching it to be a Common Eorqual, 

 which sounded for very long periods ; the longest that I timed 

 was not more than three minutes, but some of the soundings 

 before I began to time them were probably three times as long. 

 Just as the steward announced supper at seven o'clock we saw 

 another whaler fire and get fast to a Humpback. After watching 

 for a few minutes I went below, and hurrying over supper 

 hastened on deck again, when I found the poor beast was 

 screaming every time it rose to the surface ; the screams being 

 distinctly audible from our deck, though the whale was (according 

 to the mate's estimate) more than an English mile from us. I 

 was told by the Norwegian whalers that the Humpback Whale is 

 the only species which appears to have a voice, but in 'A Whaling 

 Cruise and History of the Whale Fishery,' by J. Eoss Browne 

 (London, 1846), the author speaks of a Sperm Whale, when 

 harpooned (page 209), giving "a tremendous hollow roar, like 

 that of an infuriated bull." 



The screaming of the Humpback is referred to in ' Recent 

 Memoirs on the Cetacea by Professors Escricht, Reinhardt, and 

 Lilljeborg ' (edited by Prof. Flower, and published by the Eay 

 Society, 1800), in the ' Synopsis of Scandinavian Cetacea,' by 

 Lilljeborg (p. 293), where he mentions a case of a young Hump- 

 back caught at Godthaab (Greenland), which still followed the 

 mother, who was for several days afterwards seen swimming 

 about in the same bay in the greatest anxiety: — "Her sudden 

 jumps and a peculiar way in which she spouted, often with an 

 audible bellowing sound, plainly indicated her grief." The 

 sounds which I heard emitted by this species I should rather 

 describe as a shrill scream, reminding me very forcibly of the 

 gruesome sounds uttered by a wretched pig when being rung or 

 stuck, but somewhat less shrill. 



