70 



the true one. There is a great diversity of opinion as to whether a close 

 season would be beneficial or not. The general impression is, that if an 

 Act could be passed prohibiting the killing of whales during their calving 

 season, much would be done towards insuring their increase ; it would 

 however, be difficult, if not practically impossible, to enforce such an 

 Act upon foreign whaling vessels, which would prosecute the trade with 

 impunity. The cow-whales breed during the months of May, Ju.ne, 

 and July, and visit the shores and bays for this purpose solely, though 

 occasionally a solitary whale will visit them during the summer months. 

 At this time they are not accompanied by the bulls. These, however, 

 come in in batches of from five to ten during the latter part of the 

 breeding season — August or September. Soon afterwaixls all return to 

 the feeding on off-shore grounds, where, as before stated, their destruction 

 is continued by the off-shore whalers. The cows thus remain about four 

 or five months in the breeding grounds. They suckle their calves for 

 not less than twelve months, at the end of which period they are 

 generally in very poor condition, having very little oil in them, and their 

 blubber being like a watery substance, whilst their calves will sometimes 

 contain three or four tuns of oil each. It will be readily seen that more 

 cows than bulls were killed during a successful whaling season, the 

 proportion being about five or six cows to one bull. This dispi^oportion 

 is another source of the gradual disappearance of the species. Such is 

 an epitome of the reliable information the Institute has been able to 

 collect on this subject. 



Sixth Meeting. July 19, 1870. 



J. S. Webbe, Vice-President, in the chair. 



1. "On the Physical Geography of the Otago Lake District," by 

 James M'Kerrow. (See Transactions.) This paper dwelt upon *[ the 

 evidence which exists that these lakes lie in basins which had been 

 excavated by glacier action. His remarks were illustrated by a longi- 

 tudinal section of Lake Wakatipu, constructed according to the data 

 afforded by recent systematic soundings. Refei-ring to the theory of 

 imequal subsidence of the country, which has found favour with Dr. 

 Hector, and which is used by him to account for these rock-bound lake 

 basins, he expressed his conviction that no such explanation was 

 demanded by the phenomena. He referred to the valuable effects of 

 the lakes in regulating to a great extent the flow of water in the rivers, 

 of whose systems they form part, thus mitigating the effects of the rapid 



