98 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



particular kind of parasite which is occasionally found infesting 

 the whale. An easterly swell, the cause which had been so 

 effective in destroying this point of ice, had been equally effective 

 in breaking up into pack-ice the floes lying to the westward. To 

 the refuge so formed the whales had undoubtedly retreated, and 

 most likely were still lying there perfectly secure from attack. 



Although undoubtedly ice-loving in its habits before the inter- 

 ference of man, the Greenland Eight Whale, having there no 

 enemy to fear from which it had not the power to escape, wandered 

 seawards in quest of its food, which in many seasons, owing to 

 the position of the ice, is to be found there in the greatest 

 abundance. Certainly it found a resort in the bays and fiords 

 of Spitzbergen, which in the stillness of their recesses closely 

 resembled the "polynias" of its native ice-fields. Although 

 necessarily in some seasons many miles from the Greenland 

 west ice, from the margin of which I conceive it to have 

 strayed, Balcena mysticetus nevertheless annually visited the 

 bays and fiords of the western coast of Spitzbergen, but only, 

 I presume, a visit in its duration and date coincident with its 

 appearance at the west margin of the west ice in " North Green- 

 land," as already described. The effect of the interference of 

 man will now be easily understood. In the bays and fiords of 

 Spitzbergen it was first found, there it was first harpooned, and 

 from thence, as being farthest from its home, by continued 

 persecution it was first driven. To the west ice it was followed, 

 there the persecution was continued, the animal became still 

 more timid in its habits, still more anxious of its safety, the 

 bays and deep recesses along the margins of the ice became 

 less frequently visited, and the Greenland Right \^ hale, 

 avoiding open water as dangerous, regarded the heave of the 

 ocean's swell as the signal to retreat, and thus preferred to 

 remain amongst the close-ice, knowing that while there it was 

 secure beyond the reach of its enemies. In short, Balcena 

 mysticetus was originally so ice-loving in its habits, that its 

 annual migrations were formerly the same as at present, but that 

 by long and continued persecution it has become considerably 

 more timid and cautious in its habits, which, together with the 

 great reduction in its numbers, brought about by the same 

 means, it first ceased to visit the west coast of Spitzbergen, its 

 appearance in the o^ien sea became an occurrence of increasing 



