1886.] MR. R. COLLETT ON BAL.'ENOI'TERA BOREALIS. 2-J5 



preserved in the University Museum at Christiauia), and a foetus from 

 the same locality, that the Finmark " Sejhval " is identical with 

 B, borealis. 



Thus, whilst B. borealis, as has been stated, is a constant summer 

 visitor on the coasts of West Finmark, where it has annually, 

 although in varying numbers, occurred off Soroen, near Hammerfest, 

 probably to gorge upon the "Aate," or the shoals of Crustacea which 

 constitute its food, it has, as mentioned above, only exceptionally 

 visited East Finmark, and on the coast east of the North Cape 

 only a few specimens had been caught, and not every year. 



It does not, however, appear to have been altogether unknown 

 even on this part of the coast. During a stay in Finmark in 1878 

 I received information that a shoal of 13 whales, of about 40 feet in 

 length, had stranded in a bay of the Porsangerfjord to the east of 

 the North Cape. I did not have an opportunity of visiting the 

 j>lace ; but as the baleen-plates of these Whales were described as 

 being black, it seems very probable that they belonged to this 

 species". 



In the same month 5 similar small whales were stranded at Sorvaer, 

 near Hammerfest (where the above-mentioned factory had not then 

 been established). Moreover, several whalers have informed me 

 that this species visited the Varangerfjord in 1879 and 1880, but 

 was not caught; they also noticed that whenever this species came 

 in, jB. sibbaldiXeh the coast and went out to sea^. 



During the past summer, 1885, the Sejhval {B. borealis) came 

 quite unexpectedly under land along the whole coast of Finmark, not 

 singly or solitarily, but in such large numbers that, during the whole 

 summer, most of the whales caught both in West and East Fin- 

 mark consisted of this species. Of the other species, B. sibbaldi, 

 B. musculus, and Megaptera boops, which in former years had 

 formed the majority, oidy a comparatively small number were 

 caught *. 



Of B. borealis 724 specimens were caught by 18 companies 

 stationed in Finmark, and 47 specimens by 3 companies, on the 

 Murman coast, making together a total of 771 specimens. 



In fact they were caught by all the companies along the whole 



1 " Sur I'existence d'une 4me espeoe du genre Balcenopfera dans les mers 

 septentrionales de I'Europe " (Bull. Acad. Roy. Belg. 3" ser. tome vii. no. 4, 

 Avril 18S4). This jjapei- is translated (with a few additions) in Journ. of Auat. 

 and Phys. 1885, p. 1^93. 



^ Nyt Mag. f. Naturv. 27 B. p. 260 (1885). 



^ It was therefore said this year in Finmark that as B. borealis was under 

 land, B. sibbaldi would not come, and this presumption proved to a great 

 extent corre(-t. B. sibbaldi was this year almost absent from the Norwegian 

 coast as compared with the preceding years ; but it was more common further 

 east, as 5 whalers on the Murman coast killed almost exactly the same number 

 of that species as all the 31 Norwegian whalers did together. 



■' [Of Megaptera boops rather more examples were caught than in any previous 

 year ; this does not necessarily show that they were more numerous than in 

 otlier years, but, in the absence of the two larger species, they were hunted in 

 preference to B. borealis, as yielding three times the quantity of oil.— A. H. C] 



