548 MR, R. BROWN ON THE CKTACEANS [Nov. 12, 



and did not consider it worth the carriage and fire to try out the 

 oil. The blubber is hard and cartilaginous, not unlike soft glue. 

 Its " blowing" can be distinguished at a distance, by being whiter 

 and lower than that of Balcena mysticetus. 



3. Bajljenoptera gigas, Eschr. 



Sibbaldius borealis, Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, p. IZ-t. 



Popular names. — This is popularly confounded with the last, and 

 the same names are applied to it by the whalers and Eskimo. It is 

 probably also the Kepokarnak of the Greenlanders. 



It visits the coast of Greenland only in the summer months, from 

 March to November ; and its range may be given as the same as the 

 last. In common with the former, it is rarely killed by the natives. 



4. BaljEnoptera rostrata, O. Fab. 



Popular names. — Little Finner, Pike Whale (English whalers 

 and authors); Waagehval (Norse); Tihagulik (Greenlanders); 

 Tschikagleuch (Kamschatkdales). 



This Whale only comes in the summer months to Davis Strait 

 and Baffin's Bay, or very seldom during the winter to the southern 

 portion of Greenland. It is not killed by the natives ; and its range 

 is that of its congeners. The natives of the western shores of Davis 

 Strait seldom recognized the figure of this and allied species of 

 Whales, though the Greenlanders instantly did so*. 



5. Megaptera longimana. Gray. 



Balcenoptera hoops, O. Fab. Faun. Grcenl. p. 36 (non Linn.?). 



Popular names. — Humpback (English whalers) ; Rorqval, Star 

 Rorhval (Norse) ; Keporkak (Greenlanders and Danes in Green- 

 land). 



This Whale is only found on the Greenland coast in the summer 

 months. For many years it has been regularly caught at the settle- 

 ment of Frederikshaab, in South Greenland. In North Greenland 

 it is not much troubled. Whilst dredging in the harbour of Egedes- 

 minde one snowy June day a large Keporkak swam into the bay ; but 

 though there were plenty of boats at the settlement, and the natives 

 were very short of food, yet they stood on the shore staring at it 

 without attempting to kill it. The natives of this settlement are, 

 no doubt, the poorest hunters and fishers in all North Greenland (if 

 we except Godhavn, the next most civilized place) ; but there were 

 at that time at the settlement natives from outlying places. Capt. 

 John Walker, in the 'Jane' of Bo'ness, one year, in default of better 

 game, killed fifteen Humpbacks in Disco Bay. He got blubber from 

 them sufficient, according to ordinary calculation, to yield seventy 

 tuns of oil ; but on coming home it only yielded eighteen. The bone 



* In a Greenland skeleton at Copenhagen, according to Escliricht, the lateral 

 processes of the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae are united, which is not the case 

 with one from Norway. We cannot be too cautious in separating species on 

 such distinctions. 



