ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 39 



Much as we could wish, on reviewing the above-mentioned statements derived from very 

 different authors, that the historical evidences about the whale mentioned by the name of 

 " Sletbag," " Sarde," or " Nordkaper," had contained a more complete description of it, yet it 

 must be admitted that they are sufficient to prove our former assertion, that the ancient 

 Icelanders as well as the whalers of different nations really used to distinguish between this 

 whale and the Greenlaud Avhale, and that this distinction was in all respects well founded. 

 As certain characteristics of the " Sletbag," we are already enabled to point out the 

 following : 



1. That it was much more active than the Greenland whale, much quicker, and more 

 violent in its movements, and accordingly both more difficult and more dangerous to catch. 



2. That it was smaller (it being, however, impossible to give an exact statement of its 

 length), and had much less blubber. 



3. That its head was shorter, and that its whalebone was, comparatively speaking, much 

 thicker, but scarcely more than half as long as that of the Greenland whale, being however 

 still much longer than that of even the very largest fin- whale, although the " Sletbag" itself 

 probably scarcely attained to half the length of the last-named. 



4. That it was regularly infested with a cirriped belonging to the genus Coronula, and that 

 it belonged to the temperate Northern Atlantic as exclusively as the Greenland whale belonged 

 to the icy Polar sea, so that it must be considered as equally exceptional when either of these 

 species strayed into the range of the other, and, moreover, that in its native sea it was to be 

 found farthest towards south in the winter (namely, in the Bay of Biscay and near the coast of 

 North America, down to Cape Cod), while in the summer it roved about in the sea round Iceland, 

 and betvi'een this island and the most northerly part of Norway. 



The existence of such a North Atlantic right-whale may be said to be so certain, that it is 

 much more surprising that it ever should have been omitted in the zoological system than that 

 it has now, as we hope, regained its former place in it. The reasons why Scoresby, and afterwards 

 Cuvier, would not acknowledge it as a s eparate species,^ were, besides an insufficient knowledge 

 of the historical evidence relating to it, partly the fact of the former's not having seen anything 

 of it on his many whaling expeditions, and partly the great resemblance to the Greenland whale, 



neither the Alopias vulpes, nor any other shark, can spring several yards above the water, as Captain 

 Crow tells us his " thrashers " did. 



Now, when we call to mind that the name "Thrasher" not only denotes the shark just men- 

 tioned, but that it is a common appellation among sailors for the Orcas, it does not seem tmlikely 

 that, while conversing on board Captain Crow's ship about the interesting spectacle which they had 

 witnessed, some of the company may have used the word " Thrasher," others the word " Sword-fish," 

 about the animals which had been fighting with the whale, and that it was not until afterwards when he 

 had sought information in scientific works about the animals spokeu of by these names, that Captain 

 Crow was induced to write down his account, having been led into the belief that really two kinds of 

 tishes had been fighting with the whale. — J. R. 1864.] 



^ In the first edition of the " Regne Animal," (1817), Cuvier still believed in the existence of the 

 "Nordkaper" (Balæna glaciaUs Kl.) (1. c. vol. i, p. 286). It was not till in the " Recherches sur les 

 ossemens fossiles," and in the essay : " Sur la determination des diverses espéces de Baleines vivantes " 

 (in 'Ann. d. Se. nat.' T. ii, 18.24), that it was abandoned, and it is easily to be seen that this alteration 

 in Cuvier's opinions was, to a great extent, occasioned by the statements of Scoresby. 



