{17 95 ¢/ ap 3 
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LRAL H\SS 
THIRD SERIES. 
Fou. X.| APRIL, 1886. [ING TS, 
THE FINWHALE FISHERY OF 1885 ON THE NORTH 
EUROPEAN COAST. 
By Atrrep Hennacr Cooks, M.A., F.Z.S. 
Tux season of 1885 was a very remarkable one. On the one 
hand, Rudolphi’s Rorqual, which was previously only known to 
the eastward of the North Cape as an accidental stragegler, 
appeared last year in thousands along the whole coast whose 
waters are hunted by the Norwegian and Russian Finwhalers, 
over 700 of this species having been captured; on the other 
hand, Sibbald’s Rorqual, or the Blue Whale, hitherto the 
principal object of pursuit, was extremely scarce, several of the 
Norwegian companies not having taken a single example, the 
average being less than one per boat ; while the Russian boats 
averaged exactly half a dozen each, the number of this species 
killed by the three Russian companies actually exceeding that 
taken by the nineteen Norwegian establishments. 
The total capture of Balenopteride off the north coast of 
Europe last season reached the enormous number of about 
1400 Whales. The amount of oil procured, however, was 
not much more (and proportionately considerably less) than 
that from the total of something under 500 Whales killed in 
1884, since one Blue Whale gives as much as ten or a dozen 
Rudolphis’. 
The following is probably a fair estimate of the relative 
values of the different species of Finwhale hunted ; reckoned in 
petroleum casks, which hold from 40 to 44 gallons each, the nett 
ZOOLOGIST.—aAPRIL, 1886 L 
