154. REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1912. 
exactly the same direction of progression as originally. This may 
happen in deep water, where it would be practically impossible for the 
whale to dive deeply enough to see the sea-bottom for guidance. It 
would appear that whales have a definite sense of direction and location. 
When whales are observed constantly moving in a certain direction, the 
question arises—what is the object of this movement? It may be a 
certain feeding-ground, or perhaps a definite spot for breeding. There 
may be definite migration * over long distances for these purposes. Two 
instances of this were given me by Capt. Bruun. A few years ago a 
‘school ’ of Humpbacks (Megaptera longimana, Rud.) regularly came 
from the White Sea across to the north of Norway every year in the 
autumn, about October. They passed Norway and made their way to 
Iceland, where the females bore young in the following spring. Ap- 
parently most of these whales have now been killed. 
In California there are long inlets with fairly narrow mouths. In 
the autumn ‘ schools’ of gravid female Humpbacks swim into these 
inlets. The young are born, and in the following spring the-bull 
whales come, apparently to fetch the females and young. 
There seems to be a more or less definite periodicity in the appear- 
ance of certain species of whales. Thus the whalers say that the Right 
whales (Balena biscayensis, Gray) follow the Sejhvals (Balenoptera 
borealis, lesson), and both disappear by the end of June. The last 
Sejhval caught from the Belmullet station in 1911 was brought in on 
May 18, but most of the first half of June was foo stormy for ‘ fishing.’ 
Almost all the whales passing the coast of the West of Treland 
during the summer appear to be moving north. Some of the whaling 
stations further north had bad catches on the whole in 1911. There 
were three stations shut down in Iceland. One of these only obtained 
ninety whales with nine steamers. 
Tt is possible that most of the stations on and just off the West of 
Furope ‘fish’ from the same batches of whales which come up from 
the south and move northwards gradually through the summer. Thus 
by the time a ‘ school’ reaches the more northerly stations its number 
will be diminished, and the remaining individuals may be more wary. 
Mr. R. C. Haldane * states that the whales (especially Balenoptera 
musculus, the common Finner) are not getting fewer at the Seotch 
stations. This may point to the conclusion that the whales passing the 
West Coast of Treland move directly towards Iceland, and may not form 
the same ‘ schools ’ which are hunted from the Shetland stations. 
All the whalers believe that the whales live in separate ‘ schools.’ 
Captain Bruun does not think that whales ever cross the Line. In the 
ease of whales living fairly near the Liné there appears to be nothing to 
prevent them crossing it in their long-distance movements. However, 
during the summer the migrating movements lead almost invariably 
from warmer to colder seas, so that whales living south of the Line would 
naturally move southwards towards the South Polar seas. 
3. Diving and ‘ blowing.’ °—The phenomenon of ‘ blowing 
is very 
4 Vide T. Southwell, ‘The Migration of the Right Whale,’ Nat. Science, 
vol. xii., No. 76, June 1898. 
: ® Haldane, Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., January 1907 and 1910. 
® Vide EB. G. Racovitza, Rept. Smithsonian Inst., 1903, p. 627. 
