SOME BRITISH WHALES. 275 



tunately its species was not ascertained. A. 

 second specimen, of thirty-one feet, was taken 

 in the estuary of the Dee, and its stomach was 

 found to contain shrimps. 



This species offers but little to the Whaler. 

 Its blubber and whalebone are of inferior 

 quality, and it is easily killed. The Green- 

 landers even attack it without harpoons, steal- 

 ing along in their kajaks, and stab it with 

 lances. Fish, molluscs, and crustaceans con- 

 stitute its food in its native seas, and although 

 it grows to sixty feet even, forty-five is perhaps 

 the average length. Professor Hilljeborg sa} r s 

 that often during calm weather it rests on the 

 surface of the water, occasionally lying on its 

 side, beating itself with its pectoral fins, as if 

 trying to rub away something that annoyed it. 

 Sometimes it jumps quite out of the water, 

 turns round in the air, and falls on its back, 

 beating itself with the pectorals. At times it 

 appears quite fearless, and swims round about 

 the boats quite near to them, as if they were its 

 comrades. The young one follows its mother 

 until she brings forth another, which is said not 

 to take place every year, as very large young 

 ones are sometimes seen with their mothers. 



