146 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1912. 
time, as extinction threatens only the large Rorquals (Balenoplerida), 
Right whales (Balenid@), and Sperm whales (Physeteride), which are 
regularly hunted. 
The disadvantages arise entirely from the fact that the hunting and 
subsequent cutting-up of the whales have to be looked at simply from 
a commercial point of view by the whalers. In my own limited 
experience—and I believe in the experience of everyone who has visited 
a station with a view to scientific observation—the authorities of the 
company are quite willing to give every facility possible, but obviously 
the prosperity of the company must be the first consideration, and as 
this may be said to depend largely on the celerity with which the 
whale carcases are cut up and transferred to the boilers—every moment 
wasted being so much good oil lost, as it runs from the blubber and 
meat—the time necessary for careful observations and the prosperity 
of the company are incompatible. Again, the practice of pumping air 
into the dead whale to facilitate towing often results in the body 
‘bursting, on account of the internal accumulation of gases, sooner than 
it would in the absence of this blowing-up of the carcase. Lastly, the 
method of cutting up the body is not the one which a scientific observer 
would choose if he had the power so to do. In spite of all this there 
is a great advantage which must not be overlooked. The Whaling 
Company authorities will almost invariably allow an observer to go out 
on the whaling-boats, and this, after all, gives us practically the only 
means of observing these extraordinary mammals under natural con- 
ditions. A minor disadvantage, but one which cannot be entirely 
neglected, depends on the fact that the whaling stations are nearly 
always situated in places which are more or less difficult of access. 
These advantages and disadvantages have beeu noted by other 
observers,' but as they particularly impressed themselves upon me 
during my three months’ stay at the Belmullet Station, I have thought 
them worth repeating. 
The whaling season for 1911 at the Belmullet Station was fair 
from a commercial point of view. About 2,200 barrels? of oil were 
obtained, besides guano and whalebone, from sixty-three whales, 
giving an average of about thirty-six barrels per whale. ‘This is a 
fairly good yield of oil, although the total number of the catch is not 
large. For the Northern Stations—that is, those off Iceland, the 
Shetlands, Ireland, &c.—thirty whales per boat is considered a mini- 
mum for a factory to keep working at a profit, but it must be noted 
that the yield of oil is not by any means proportional to the total 
number of the catch. A female with unborn young gives the best 
yield, whilst a female with a suckling probably yields the least. In 
the case of most of the Southern companies only the blubber is taken, 
this being stripped off and the boiling done on the steamer at sea. The 
carease is turned adrift, and this is a great waste from a commercial 
'H.q., Lillie, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1910, 2,769. 
* One barrel = 200 kilos. = 4 cwt. (approx.). Six barrels = 1 ton is a nearer 
approximation. 
‘ 
