ON THE WHALEBONE WHALES. 661 



30. On the Natural History o£ Whalebone Whales. 

 By J. A. MoRCH, (Christiania) *. 



[Received March 3, 1911 : Read April 4, 1911.] 



(Text-figures 160-163.) 



No period in the annals of modern whaling exhibits such an 

 intense activity as that which has been developed during the 

 course of the last two years, after the pioneer expeditions of the 

 preceding years to antarctic, subantarctic, and other waters 

 in the Southern Hemisphere had demonstrated the wealth of 

 Cetacea which is to be found in some of these localities. The 

 rise in the price of oil to figures which, thi'ough shortage in the 

 crop of oil-seeds, have not been obtained for the last twenty-five 

 years, has had a further stimulating effect upon the development 

 of this pursuit in those southern waters. 



The situation to-day, then, is that, after the short run of six 

 years, whaling in the Southern Hemisphere has attained a com- 

 mercial importance entirely overshadowing that of the industry 

 in our northern latitudes, which is now more than forty years old. 

 As an example, it may be mentioned that last season, from 

 the island of South Georgia alone, fourteen whaling steamers 

 brought 106,800 barrels of oil, which is more than the world's 

 total production of whale-oil three years ago ! 



Even during the latter part of the last century the attention 

 of Norwegian whalers was directed to these distant regions ; and 

 in 1893 two expeditions started from Norway to try their luck 

 in the chase of Seals and Right Whales in southern seas. One, 

 in the ' Antarctic,' proceeded to Australian waters, and the other, 

 in the ' Jason,' to the islands south-east of Cape Horn. The 

 pecuniary results were not encouraging, and further attempts 

 were given up for the time. Then came the Nordenskiold scientific 

 expedition in 1901, and Capt. 0. A. Larsen, in the 'Antarctic' 

 belonging to that expedition, had an opportunity of continuing 

 his observations made during his previous voyage in the ' Jason.' 

 Having satisfied himself of the seemingly limitless numbers of 

 whales in those waters, he succeeded, in 1904, in interesting parties 

 in Argentina in his plan for establishing a whaling -station on the 

 island of South Georgia ; and he began operations there about 

 the new year, 1905. 



Meanwhile, in 1903, the Norwegian Storthing had passed a 

 law prohibiting whaling on the northern coasts of Norway, and 

 the now homeless whalers had to go in search of other fields for 

 their operations. In the spring of that year a comparatively small 

 vessel was fitted out as a floating factory and dispatched to 

 Spitzbergen as an experiment. This proved successful ; and in 

 the next summer a larger vessel proceeded to these waters, 



* Communicated by S. F. Haemee, Sc.D., F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. 



