176 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 



have been attributed to the Greenland whale, which was sup- 

 posed by Cuvier, for instance, to have had formerly a much 

 wider distribution than now, and to have been driven by the 

 persecution of man to its present circumpolar haunts. To the 

 two Danish naturalists Eschricht and Reinhardt is due the credit 

 of having proved its existence as a distinct species, from a 

 careful comparison of numerous historical notices of its structure, 

 distribution, and habits, and although they were at one time 

 disposed to think that the species had become extinct, they were 

 able to show that this was not the case, an actual specimen 

 having been captured in the harbour of San Sebastian in January 

 1854, the skeleton of which Eschricht was fortunate enough to 

 secure for the Copenhagen Museum. More recently, specimens 

 have been captured on the Spanish coast, the Mediterranean, 

 North America, and Norway. A skeleton has fortunately been 

 secured for the British Museum, the exhibition of which is only 

 delayed for want of a proper room in which it can be mounted.^ 

 In the North Pacific a very similar, if not identical, whale is 

 regularly hunted by the Japanese, who tow the carcasses ashore 

 for the purpose of stripping the blubber and extracting the whale- 

 bone. 



In the tropical seas right whales, according to 

 Captain Waring's whale charts, are seldom if ever 

 seen. But when the temperate waters of the 

 Southern Ocean were explored, there the right 

 whales were found in abundance, just as they were 

 in those of the North Atlantic. 



It is an astonishing and deplorable fact that 

 every single individual of these southern right 

 whales, so far as can be ascertained, has been 

 destroyed. That this should be possible when they 

 had the whole ocean to roam seems almost incredible. 



1 It is now in the whale room. 



