‘96 PROF. R. COLLETT ON THE [Jan. 12, 
to 330 kilogrammes, and is valued at abgut 6800 kroner (£375). 
From four full-grown whales, about one ton of baleen is obtained, 
which will thus fetch about 27,000 kroner, or £1500*. A 
single one of the longest plates of whalebone 1s worth about 
38 kroner (£2 2s.). 
Habits —Every year of the whale-fisheries in the Hebrides, 
the whales kept almost to one place, always occupied in seeking 
food among the pelagic crustaceans. In 1906 they stayed 
nearly seven weeks, but they were then more scattered, and 
appeared more irregularly. 
In 1907 they were on the ground for about six weeks, during 
which time they appeared sometimes separately, sometimes in 
small schools. The school that took up its quarters in this spot 
in 1907, consisted of at least 100 whales. 
In 1908, the plankton-bearing currents probably flowed nearer 
land than in 1907, for the whales might be met with quite in 
the shallow water between islands and rocks. Their stay this 
year was of only three weeks’ duration. 
The schools this year consisted of several hundred, and, as 
-already mentioned, the boats of the Station several times captured 
from two to five whales a day. 
In 1907 the school was unaccompanied by any other species 
of whale; but in 1908 they came with hundreds of Rudolphi’s 
Rorquals (Balenoptera borealis), which were just on their way 
morth 7. 
The five specimens killed off Ireland in 1908 were also 
accompanied by B. borealis. 
The Nordkaper is not timid, and is on the whole easy to 
approach. The harpoon used is a bomb-harpoon of the kind 
used in the Arctic Ocean. As the blubber is of considerable 
thickness, the harpoon should if possible be discharged at close 
quarters. If it strikes in the right place, the whale soon dies ; 
but if it is only wounded, it becomes very violent in its 
movements, to the no small danger of the boats, although it 
-does not attack them; it plunges round in the water like a 
ball, and often gets the line wound several times round its body. 
Notwithstanding the thick build of its body, it is able to bend 
it until the head nearly meets the flukes. 
Tt is fond of lying quietly on the surface of the water; and 
it moves slowly, with its blow-holes above water. The jet these 
sent up could be seen from a considerable distance, and was 
about 5 metres in height. It was comparatively thicker than 
that of a Common Rorqual (B. physalus); a closer view shows 
it to be distinctly formed of two jets falling to different sides, 
* The 24 specimens caught in 1907 yielded a total of rather more than 6 tons 
of baleen, of which the value was more than £9000 (163,000 kroner). 
+ B. borealis (Norwegian “Sei-hval”) appears annually in larger or smaller 
numbers in the plankton-currents off the coasts of Tromsé and Finmark, generally 
staying from the middle of June to the middle of August. 
