56 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



returning again, they seemed to be going in no particular 

 direction. Strong gales prevailed from the northward ; often 

 the boats were quite unable to pull to windward, and sometimes 

 had even difficulty in living in the short sharp sea. Imagine, 

 therefore, the additional difficulty and danger of harpooning 

 and lancing whales to keeping a boat above water in such 

 weather. Frequent snow-storms and stinging frost made four or 

 five hours in an open boat none the less uncomfortable under 

 such circumstances. The water, grass-green in colour, sometimes 

 thick and obscure, sometimes clear and transparent, contained 

 abundance of surface life, Calanus finmarchicus being as usual 

 by far the most abundant — next, perhaps, Clio horealis. Birds 

 (principally Looms and Rotches), Narwhals and Floe-rats {Phoca 

 hispida) were numerous. 



Whether going to windward or to leeward it was observed 

 that whales, when amongst much sea, invariably appeared heading 

 to leeward, apparently by interposing their backs between their 

 spiracles and the sea, preventing the access of water into their 

 lungs during inspiration. In this our boats were more than 

 once deceived, for several times, when pulling to leeward after a 

 whale, which had dived heading in that direction, they wei'e 

 somewhat disgusted to find that, on its next appearance it was 

 considerably to windward of its former position. In former 

 voyages I have a distinct recollection of chasing whales to 

 windward against a short sharp head-sea ; once, at least, while 

 personally taking a leading part in the pursuit, several times as 

 an onlooker, the observation I made on these occasions was, that 

 every time the whale appeared at the surface, invariably turning 

 away from its path, it described a circle of no great extent, and 

 on coming round again to its old course would continue swimming 

 to windward. What appeared to me then a most eccentric-like 

 evolution I am now of opinion was performed for the very same 

 reason as on the occasions already mentioned, vis., to prevent the 

 access of water to the lungs during inspiration. The spiracles 

 are semilunar openings about 12 in. long, placed longitudinally on 

 the very summit of the head or crown, having their convexities 

 turned towards one another and the mesial plane, their posterior 

 extremities farther apart than their anterior, which are situated 

 within 4 in. of one another. These oxjenings can be opened and 



