546 MR. R. BROWN ON THE CETACEANS [Nov. 12, 



as the Island of Jan Mayen (71° N. lat.), round which they were 

 so numerous in the palmy days of the Dutch whaling trade. I am 

 not quite sure, after all that has been said on this subject, that the 

 Whale is getting extinct, and am beginning to entertain convictions 

 that its supposed scarcity in recent times is a great deal owing to its 

 escaping to remote, less known, and less visited localities. It is said 

 to be coming back again to the coast of Greenland, now that tlie 

 hot pursuit of it has slackened in that portion of Davis Strait. 

 The varying success of the trade is owing not so much to the want 

 of Whales as to the ill luck of the vessels in coming across their 

 haunts. Every now and again cargoes equal to anything that was 

 obtained in the best days of the trade are obtained. Only seven 

 years ago I came home to England "shipmates" (as the phrase 

 goes) with no less than thirty Right Whales, in addition to a mis- 

 cellaneous menagerie of Arctic animals dead and alive, and a motley 

 human crew — a company so outre that I question if ever naturalist, 

 or even whaler, sailed with the like before. 



(e) Economic value. — After the very excellent account of Scoresby, 

 it would be mere pleonasm on my part to say one word regarding 

 the commercial importance of the Whale. The introduction of 

 steam, the almost universal use of the gun-harpoon, and the disco- 

 veries of Ross and Parry on the western shores of Davis Strait have 

 greatly altered the nature of the "Strait fishery" since Scoresby's 

 time. For this reason I have given the outline of a whaler's sum- 

 mer cruise, more especially as it illustrates, according to my observa- 

 tion, the range and migrations of the Right Whale. 



(J^) Varieties of Balsena mysticetus. — The whalers do not recog- 

 nize any varieties of the Right Whale by specific names, nor do I 

 of my own knov\ledge know of any entitled to that rank. Professors 

 Eschricht and Reinhardt * consider that there is a second species of 

 Right Whale found in the Greenland and northern seas, the " Nord- 

 caper" (Baleena nordcaper, Bonnat. ; BalcBna islandica, Briss., 

 &c.), the "Sletbag" of the Icelanders, and that the following facts 

 have been ascertained regarding it : — 1st, that it is much more active 

 than the Greenland Whale, much quicker and more violent in its 

 movements, and accordingly both more difficult and dangerous to 

 capture ; 2nd, that it is smaller (it being, however, impossible to 

 give an exact statement of its length) and has much less blubber ; 

 3rd, that its head is shorter, and that its whalebone is comparatively 

 small and scarcely more than half the length of that of the B. mys- 

 ticetus ; 4th, that it is regularly infested with a cirriped belonging 

 to the genus Coronula, and that it belongs to the temperate North 

 Atlantic as exclusively as the B. mysticetus belongs to the icy sea, 

 so that it must be considered exceptional when either of them strays 

 into the range of the other. Moreover they considered that in its 

 native seas it was to be found further towards the south in the 

 winter (viz. in the Bay of Biscay, and near the coast of North Ame- 

 rica down to Cape Cod), while in the summer it roved about in the 

 sea around Iceland and between this island and the most northerly 



* Loc. cit. 



