1882.] CAPT. D. GRAY ON THE BOTTLENOSE WHALE. 727 



Farewell, all round Iceland, north along the Greenland ice to 11° 

 north lat. ; also along the west coast of Spitzbergen and east 

 to Cherry Island, in lat. 72° north and long. 19° east. Beyond 

 these limits I have never seen them ; but doubtless they are to be 

 found as far as the Straits of Belle Isle on the west, and east to 

 Nova Zambia. 



From the fact that they are not seen in summer further south 

 than a day's sail from the ice, it would appear that they migrate 

 south in the autumn, and north again in the spring. 



They are gregarious in their habits, going in herds of from four 

 to ten. It is rare to see more than the latter number together, 

 although many different herds are frequently in sight at the same 

 time. The adult males very often go by themselves ; but young 

 bulls, cows and calves, with an old male as a leader, are sometimes 

 seen together. 



They are very unsuspicious, coming close alongside the ship, 

 round about and underneath the boats, until their curiosity is satis- 

 fied. The herd never leaves a wounded companion so long as it is 

 alive ; but they desert it immediately when dead ; and if another can 

 be harpooned before the previous struck one is killed, we often 

 capture the whole herd, frequently taking ten, and on one occasion 

 fifteen, before the hold of them was lost. They come from every 

 point of the compass towards the struck one in the most mysterious 

 manner. 



They have great endurance, and are very difficult to kill, seldom 

 taking out less than from three to four hundred fathoms of line ; and 

 strong full-grown males will run out seven hundred fathoms, 

 remaining under water for the long period of two hours, coming to 

 the surface again as fresh as if they had never been away ; and if 

 they are relieved of the weight by the lines being hauled in off 

 them before they receive a second harpoon and a well-placed 

 lance or two, it often takes hours to kill them. They never die 

 without a hard struggle, lashing the sea white about them, leaping 

 out of the water, striking the boats with their tails, running against 

 them with their heads and sometimes staving the planks in, fre- 

 quently towing two heavy whale-boats about after them with great 

 rapidity. 



They vary in colour from black in the young to light brown in 

 the older animals. The very old turn almost yellow, the beak and 

 front of the head being quite white, with a white baud round their 

 necks ; all of them are greyish-white in the belly. 



Their tails, instead of being notched in the centre as in most other 

 Whales, are round in the middle ; and they have great vertical 

 strength in their rump. They can leap many feet out of the water, 

 even having time while in the air to turn round their heads and 

 look about them, taking the water head first, and not falling help- 

 lessly into it sideways like the larger Whales. 



The full-grown Whale is thirty feet long by twenty feet in 

 circumference, and yields two tons of oil besides two hundred- 

 weight of spermaceti. It is remarkable that they should yield a 



