THE BOWHEAD, OR GREAT POLAR WHALE. 65 



opinion exists as to whether the "Poggies" before mentioned are calves, or whether 

 they are not a "scrag" species, which have a corresponding relation to the full- 

 grown Bowheads that the "scrag" Right Whale has to the larger grades of that 

 species. Admitting, however, that they are the young ones, their numbers are com- 

 paratively few to the numerous progeny that are supposed to be brought forth by 

 the cows during each season. Another singular fact is, that no Bowheads of the 

 Okhotsk Sea have ever been seen passing in or out the passages of the Kurile 

 Islands, or from the Okhotsk to Behring Sea, or Arctic whales passing to the 

 Okhotsk. It has been a mystery among the most experienced whalemen, as to 

 where the Bowheads resorted to bring forth their young, or where the young re- 

 mained until grown to a considerable degree of maturity ; but within a few years, 

 whales have been seen around Point Barrow with young calves, and that remote 

 line of open water, inaccessible to ships, between the summer ice -border and the 

 northern shores of the American continent, from Point Barrow to Banks' Land, 

 doubtless affords ample herding and breeding places for the mysticetes and rorquals 

 which are indigenous to those icy regions. 



Mabine Mammam. — 9. 



