150 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 421. 



Knight and himself on the ' Leucite Hills 

 of Wyoming.' This joint paper was given 

 at the Washington meeting of the Geological 

 Society of America. 



December 12- — Dr. Julien reviewed a paper 

 in a late number of the Bulletin de la Societi 

 Beige de Geologie on the origin of the curious 

 granite enclosed in the arkose of the St. 

 Etienne coal basin. 



Professor Grabau presented a very interest- 

 ing paper on the origin of limestones. This 

 was presented at the Washington meeting 

 of the Geological Society of America. 



H. W. Shimer. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



FIRST RECORD OF THE POLLACK WHALE (BAL^N- 



OPTERA BOEEALIs) IN THE_ WESTERN 



NORTH ATLANTIC. 



To THE Editor of Science : I am in receipt 

 of reliable information that during the season 

 of 1902 four finback whales of a species corre- 

 sponding to, or identical with, Balcenoptera 

 horealis Lesson were taken at the whaling 

 station at Rose-au-Rue, Placentia Bay, New- 

 foundland. This is the first authentic record 

 of this form of finback in the western North 

 Atlantic. The species is called ' Sejhval ' 

 (pollack whale) by the Norwegian whalers. 

 Whether the species taken at Newfoundland is 

 really identical with the European species 

 can of course only be determined by examina- 

 tion of specimens. 



The species named B. tuherosa by Cope, on 

 the basis of a specimen killed in Mobjack Bay, 

 Virginia, may be the same as the Newfound- 

 land pollack whale, but the description of that 

 species is inadequate for a positive determina- 

 tion, and the whereabouts of the type is at 

 present uncertain. It is quite as probable 

 that the Mobjack Bay whale represented B. 

 physalus L. 



The Newfoundland whale fishery, which was 

 established in 1898, has grown to large pro- 

 portions. The kinds of whales taken are the 

 humpback (Megapiera nodosa) and three 

 species of finbacks, namely, the common fin- 

 back (Balcenoptera physalus L.), the sulphur- 

 bottom (B. musculus L.) and, as just noted. 



the pollack whale (B. horealis, or an Ameri- 

 can representative of that species). 



According to the figures kindly placed in my 

 hands by Dr. L. Rissmuller, more than 4,')0 

 whales were taken at the Newfoundland sta- 

 tions during the season of 1902. The num- 

 ber of each kind taken at four of the stations 

 was as follows : 



The fifth station, at Aquaforte, took about 

 100 whales, mostly humpbacks. 



The existence and importance of this fishery 

 are as yet not widely known in the United 

 States. Thus, in the latest number of the 

 American Museum Journal (January, 1903, p. 

 10), in a notice of a probable sulphur-bottom, 

 it is stated that " whalers know this species as 

 the ' finner ' or ' finback ' (B. musculus) and 

 do not prize it, on account of the small amount 

 of blubber and the small size of the whale- 

 bone it carries." When it is considered that 

 a sulphur-bottom whale is worth about $1,000 

 it becomes evident that this statement is 

 hardly warranted. 



Frederick W. True. 



U. S. National Museum, 

 January 6, 1903. 



A second bishop's RING ABOUND THE SUN AND 

 the RECENT UNUSUAL TWILIGHT GLOWS. 



To the Editor of Science : A glare around 

 the sun merging into a faint smoky red or 

 purple ring 5° to 10° wide, with the maximum 

 color about 30° from the sun, has been ob- 

 served here during the past two weeks. Mr, 

 Rotch noticed a smolcy ring around the sun 

 on one day in August but no further unusual 

 glare or color was noticed around the sun 



* East coast. 

 t South coast. 



