ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE FINWHALE FISHERY. 141 
coast, not, as is commonly said, in consequence of the water 
getting too cold for them, but when their various food-supplies 
have left; and that it is the latter, and not the whales, which 
object to the cold water. 
Measurements are apt to be extremely untrustworthy, but, 
for want of more accurate information, I give the following list 
of foetuses which I was told of last season :-— 
Common Rorqual— 
Length of foetus in 
Date of killing mother. Locality. English ft. & in. 
pepe) tt oleae em ona sail ee. oieeete tp 42 in. 
(each succeeding one bigger than the previous.—Capt. Berentsen.) 
June 16 (or 25)* . .. Hretiki .-:. . 446. 6in. 
Blue Whale— 
July 21 (or Aug. 2)* . Hretiki. . . . 18 ff. 
Aaouery . 2 «fe dar Byord™. |)! 9 or 10 ft.t 
Some days previous . 
to August 14 \. NAUGS 2 cFey tony UB ft 
August 15 (or 27)*. . Hyetiki. . . . 15 ft. 6 in. 
A comparison of the numbers of each species of whale killed 
does not show the relative degree of commonness of each, as, if 
Blue Whales are to be found, the other Balenopteride are left 
alone; if this species is not to be had, the Common Finner ig 
the next sought after; and if this is not to be had, the whalers 
turn their attention to Humpbacks. Whether this last species 
or Rudolphi’s Rorqual is the more valuable I do not know, but 
the former is certainly the commoner of the two. The example 
of Rudolphi’s Rorqual killed by the Eretiki whaler was taken off 
Teriberka on August 15th; and in Vardé I was told that they 
appear at the end of the season, and that they were expecting to 
see some about the time I left there (August 21st). A man 
* These first dates, which are those I was given, are probably according 
to the Russian style, and, if so, the dates enclosed in parentheses would be 
the equivalents according to our new style. 
} This whale having been very seriously wounded some time previously, 
the growth of the foetus may have been checked, or the reputed length may 
have been merely a guess; for I was likewise told of a Blue Whale fcetus 
(at Eretiki) from a whale killed at the end of J uly or beginning of August, 
which measured 18 feet (= 18 ft. 9 in. English). 
