286 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
that the whales kept so far out to sea, generally about twenty to 
forty miles off shore; and the weather being also very unsettled 
at the time, the whalers had avery poor chance. We caught 
only four whales in April, two in May, and three in June: there 
was no great quantity of them all these months between the 
North Cape and the Murman coast. About the middle of July 
I first observed any shoal of whales—between Tana and Baads- 
fjord, thirty miles off shore; and here Blue Whales, Common 
Rorquals, and Humpbacks were represented. We caught eight 
whales between the 15th and the 22nd of that month. During 
the first days of August there were also several whales of these 
different species off the Nordkyn. After the 20th of August 
very few whales were seen; on my last cruise (August 27th 
and 28th), between the North Cape and Vardé, I only saw three 
stragglers (Common Rorquals), about forty miles north of Nord- 
kyn. We left our station at Syltefjord on the 30th of August, 
having stayed there since the 21st of March.” 
Capt. M. C. Bull (of Sérver, on Sérdéen, West Finmarken), 
writes :—‘‘ Blue Whale: very few examples seen, none obtained. 
Common Rorqual: there were several at the end of May, seven 
to eight (? sea) miles off Séréen, and thus by the 5th of June we 
had obtained thirty. Rudolphi’s Rorqual: were under the coast 
in July, but not in such large numbers as in 1887. The weather 
in 1888 was unusually stormy, with highseas. For ten days from 
St. Hans’ Day (= 24th June) we had so heavy a gale that the 
vessels had to lie in harbour. The weather was unusually cold. 
The temperature of the water so low that the Capelan, which 
usually come under land at the end of March and April, died in 
consequence; so we from our whalers observed thousands upon 
thousands of barrels of dead Capelan outside Sédréen, right up 
to North Cape. The cod fishery was thus pursued first in 
May; but a small quantity was caught, as the fishermen went 
home early. The fishermen believed that the reason why the 
Capelan died was that the water was so foul from the whaling 
factories that the fish could not live in it. They were ignorant 
that the temperature of the water could have any influence on 
the fish.” | 
The fishermen always maintain that the whales (or at least 
one or more species of them) pursue the shoals of Capelan, and, 
swimming round them, force them into compact masses and 
