THE PINWHALE FISHERY. 203 



Finmaiken coast in the month of April ; they no douht were the 

 attraction hoth to the Cod and the Common Rorquals. 



Capt. Aloff (of the Laurvig Co.) writes :—" During the first 

 half of April, many Common Finners remained under the 

 Norwegian coast, from Baadsfjord to heyond Vardo ; and during 

 the last eight days of April and the first (few) in May, under the 

 Murman coast as well. During the first half of July many 

 Common Finners were seen off the North Cape, some of them of 

 small size. More Blue Whales were seen congregated, this 

 year, between Tana and the Nordkyn, than during the last 

 couple of years." 



About the middle of May the whales disappeared, and 

 Capt Berg did not see a single individual again, until June 21st, 

 when he shot a Rudolphi's Rorqual, about thirty miles north of 

 North Cape. 



During the last few days of June there was a great number 

 of Common Finners about thirty or forty miles to the north-east 

 of North Cape, where most of the whalers killed a few. Capt. 

 Berg meanwhile caught two Blue Whales and one Common Finner 

 off the Syltefjord. At the beginning of July there was a shoal of 

 Blue Whales off the Nordkyn, where some were captured. With 

 the exception of the two above-mentioned shoals or schools, 

 Capt. Berg did not notice any number of whales together 

 during the summer; they were generally found in twos and 

 threes. 



Blue Whales were rather scarce this season along the East 

 Finmaiken coast. Capt. Berg captured one as early as the 10th 

 of May, but this was quite a straggler, and few, if any, others 

 were seen before the middle of June. Vessels bringing out coal 

 from England reported large schools of Blue Whales in July, 

 from the Lofoten Islands up to the North Cape, about forty or 

 fifty miles off shore. There was also a good number of Blue 

 Whales about the snine time round Soioen, and to the eastward 

 of Kildin Island on the Murman coast. 



Capt. Bull, of Soroen (West Finmarken) also mentions the 

 great number of whales reported by the sailing vessels coming 

 from England, between the Lofutens and the coast of the province 

 of Nordland, but calls them Common Rorquals. Hardly any 

 seamen besides whalers know the different species of whale by 

 sight, but while both kinds may have been present, the latter at 



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