THE FINWHALE FISHERY OF 1886. Sll 



of islands, and therefore saw nothing ; it was too rough while he 

 was crossing Vestfjovd to see anything. Herr Wiborg saw a few 

 Common Rorquals on March 24th between Nordkyn and Vardo, 

 and had seen none previously on his passage. Capt. Berg saw 

 none on his passage north. Capt. H. Ellevsen saw several 

 Common Rorquals on March 23rd between Tanafjord and Sylte- 

 fjord ; and between May 25th and June 26th Whales were 

 numerous between Tanafjord and North Cape. Capt. Berg says, 

 " From May 27th to June 20th there were, off and on, great 

 quantities of Whales between North Cape and Tanahorn, 

 especially about the Nordkyn ; these Wliales were Common 

 Rorquals or Whales resembling the so-called hybrids (Bastarder). 

 ^Ve had first in July a large show of Whales N.E. of Syltefjord ; 

 these were typical Common Rorquals ; at the same time there 

 were also sundry Blue Whales off Syltefjord, though no remark- 

 able number. In April there was a stray Common Rorqual, off 

 and on, between Tanahorn and Vardo, but the weather was then 

 stormy, so that it hindered the fishing." Capt. Sorensen rejJorts, 

 " During the month of June there were often a quantity of Com- 

 mon Rorquals collected about Nordkyn and North Cape." Herr 

 Wiborg says, "A quantity of Common Rorquals were seen in the 

 middle of June between North Cape and Nordkyn. About the 

 middle of July there were not a few Blue Whales about eight (sea) 

 miles (= thirty-two English land miles) N.E. of Vardo, on their 

 passage eastwards. A few days later there were a quantity of 

 Blue Whales congregated off the Seven Islands (Sem Ostrova), 

 on the Murman coast." Capt. S. A. Nilsen, of the 'Murmanetz,' 

 told me that, with the exception of 1885, when the extraordinary 

 arrival of Rudolphi's Whales took place, he had seen more 

 Whales this season than in any previous year. 



Mr. Robert Cray's very interesting notes on last year's voyage 

 of the ' Eclipse,' in the present volume of ' The Zoologist,' help 

 to show the distribution of the Blue Whale during the spring and 

 early summer, and he corroborates the opinion I expressed in 

 these pages in 1884, that the statement in Nordenskiold's 'Arctic 

 Voyages,' that the " Finners " never live in colder water than 

 2'5° C, is an error. Capt. Castberg, jun. (commanding a Nor- 

 wegian Greenland whaler) also reported seeing, in 1886, 

 Blue Whales among Bottlenoses off Grimsey (an island off the 

 N. coast of Iceland), in 67° N. lat., and between the 17th and 



