PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS. 1 13 



wandered westward to the Newfoundland coast, in pursuit of 

 the great multitude of squid which are its principal food. 



When we consider the northern range of the Sperm Whale 

 in early years, before the persistent industry of whalers had near- 

 ly exterminated it in the northernmost waters of the Atlantic, it 

 cannot be possible that that species did not also occur in our 

 intervening waters, at least casually if not somewhat regularly, 

 a couple of hundred years ago and probably much later. 



In the absence of definite records, we naturally turn for some 

 light on the subject to our Micmac Indians who are keen ob- 

 servers of natural objects which come to their attention, and 

 whose ability for handing down information traditionally, in 

 the absence of written records, is trully remarkable. 



Our Indians inform me that very old men of their tribe have 

 an ancient tradition, handed down by their fathers, of a very 

 rare cetacean which the later men have never seen. To this 

 animal they gave the very characteristic descriptive name of 

 Ded' -men-ah! -pari, which signifies "head cut off sharply or square- 

 ly," or as my informant, Lone-cloud, further explained it, 

 "Just the same as if you cut the head off squarely in front." 

 Such a name could surely only have been applied to the Sperm 

 Whale, whose large and remarkably blunt head is so character- 

 istic a feature that it would instantly have attracted the sharp 

 eyes of our natives on viewing a casually stranded individual, 

 and who, in their well-known fashion, would have included this 

 character in framing a descriptive name which has been handed 

 down to later generations. It must be noted that this name is to 

 be distinguished from the related one, Ded-men-akrpaj-jel, to which 

 reference has previously been made, which means an aniitval 

 with merely a blunt head, and which I believe designated the 

 Pygmy Sperm Whale, as a dorsal-fin is specifically referred to 

 as being present. The same Indian knew the two names and 

 applied them to different animals. The name Ded-men-ak-part 

 was known through tradition to both old Soolian Bill, formerly 

 of Cape Breton Island, and to Nole Jeddore, before mentioned, 

 so that the animal probably occurred both about that island 

 as well as off the mainland of Nova Scotia. Unfortunately the 

 tradition does not seem to mention whether the dorsal fin was 

 absent in this very blunt-headed cetacean; for if it did, the 

 identification would be as about complete as could be desired. 



