ON THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE. 9 



fact, not admitting of any doubt, that the whales he had met with at the places mentioned, and in 

 the recesses of Wostenholme Sound, situated a little more southwards, were of the same kind as those 

 called by the Basques " Grand-Bay whales," which are caught near Spitzbergen, at that time 

 called Greenland. In our days Sir John Ross,^ on his voyage in the year 1818, found numerous 

 whales at the end of July and in August (16th) between the 75th and 76th degrees of latitude. 



The Greenland whale is thus, like other Cetaceans, a migratory animal. As shown 

 by the account given above, it changes its station, according to the season, with perfect 

 regularity ; and in some cases even the same individuals have been observed to return annually 

 to the same bays and fiords. Thus, on the 4th of January, 1817, a whale was caught in the 

 Fiord of Amertlok which had frequently been hunted in the preceding year, being readily 

 identified by the loss of a piece of its tail and the growth of a large excrescence from the injured 

 place; and on the 15th of May, 1837, an English whale-fisher caught a whale near Kangarsuk 

 (about a mile from Godhavn) in which was found a piece of the same harpoon by which 

 it had been struck by one of the harpoouers of the Danish factoiy, on the 26th February, 

 1833. In perfect conformity with the laws of the migrations of polar animals in general, 

 the whale approaches nearest to the Pole in the summer, and it appears in the winter near 

 shores where it is never seen at milder times of the year. During the short polar summer it has 

 been met with as far towards the north, in Baffin's Bay, as the polar expeditions have succeeded 

 in penetrating, while its southward range, in winter time, is always limited by rather a northerly 

 degree of latitude. Thus, it can hardly be doubted but that the whale comes from the north or 

 north-west to its winter stations ; and though it has in one place been said that it comes from 

 the south into the Fiord of Amertlok, near Holsteinsborg, this is evidently a mistake, 

 which we should not even have taken the trouble to refute if the statement had not been made 

 by an author^ who, having stayed several years in Greenland, may be supposed to be well 

 informed. 



In different regions of the globe certain large cetaceous animals have been observed 

 to approach the coast and to enter the bays, in order to bring forth their young ones, 

 remaining as long as the latter are still in a tender condition. Thus, we are informed by 

 Delalande that the Cape whale {Balæna australis, Desm.) repairs annually for this purpose to 

 the bays on the south coast of the Cape country, between the 10th and 20th of June, and that 

 it again departs at the end of August or beginning of September ; but that very few, except 

 females, approach the coast in this manner, so that there were only two males among some fifty 

 whales observed by him.^ A similar account has since been received by Dr. J. E. Gray from 

 Mr. Warwick, who stayed for some time near Falsebay during the season of whale-fishing, and 

 among sixty whales only met with a single male.* Of the appearance of the right-whale {Balæna 



^ ' A Voyage of Discovery in His Majesty's Ships Isabella and Alexander,' &c. Second edition, 

 London, 1819, vol. i, pp. 88 and 154. 



^ Glahn, ' Forsog til en Afhandling om Grenlændernes Skikke ved Hvalfiskeriet,' Nye Saml. af d. 

 Kong. Norske Vid. Selsk., Skr. I, Kbhvn., 1784, p. 276. 



^ ' Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle/ t. ii, Paris, 1822, p. 159. Cuvier, F., ' De I'histoire 

 naturelle des Cétacés,' Paris, 1836, p. 364. 



* ' Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror,' " Mammalia," parts iii — v, London, 1846, 

 p. 15. ' Catalogue of the Specimens of Mammalia in the Collection of the British Museum,' part i, 

 " Cetacea," London, 1850, p. 16. 



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