' THE ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE 



The colour is entirely black. 



During the Middle Ages this was a common species in the Bay of 

 Biscay and EngHsh Channel, and westwards was plentifiil in the Atlantic 

 round the coasts of Newfoundland. Later on, it became increasingly 

 scarce in its old haunts, and towards the middle of last century and for 

 some time later, appeared to be almost extinct. However, between 1889 

 and 1 89 1 about seventeen were taken by the Norwegian whalers off 

 Iceland, and as already mentioned sixty-seven were captured and brought 

 to the Scottish stations between 1908 and 19 14. 



Professor D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson has shown in his interesting 

 account of the whales landed at these ports {Scottish Naturalist^ Sept. 191 8, 

 pp. 204-205), that nearly all the Nordcapers were brought into 

 Buneaveneader, having been " caught within a limited area lying to the 

 west and south-west of the Hebrides and beyond St. Kilda, as far as 

 about 10° W. None have been taken on the Rockall grounds and very 

 few in the neighbourhood of the Shetlands." Right Whales, separated 

 from the Atlantic Right Whale by differences so slight as to make them 

 appear identical, inhabit the South Atlantic as well as the North and 

 South Pacific. 



The pursuit of the Nordcaper can be traced far back in the Middle 

 Ages, and appears to have been first carried on by the Basques in the 

 Bay of Biscay, along the coasts of France and Spain, when the whale 

 hunters were able to bring in their captures to Bayonne, Biarritz, San 

 Sebastian and other ports. 



In course of time, the whales becoming scarce near shore, they were 

 followed across the Atlantic as far as the coast of Newfoundland, where 

 an extensive fishery was carried on. 



These Biscayan Whalers were fine intrepid seamen, skilful in the 

 use of the weapon they invented, which still bears the name they gave 



59 



