THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 

 Vol. XIV.] SEPTEMBER 1890. [No. JG5, 



THE FINWHALE FISHERY OFF THE LAPLAND COAST 



IN 1889. 



By Alfred Heneage Cocks, M.A., F.Z.S. 



Though the returns for the Finwhaling in 1889 are again 

 not so perfect as one could wish, they are yet sufficiently so to 

 show that the falling off from year to year, in the number of 

 whales, steadily and even rapidly continues. I have heard 

 nothing from my friend Capt. Berg ; and as there is also no 

 mention of him in the list Capt. Sorensen again, as usual, kindly 

 sent me, I suppose he was not whaling last season. Capt. H. 

 Ellevsen, instead of working at Vardo, has been trying his luck 

 off Iceland, taking his factory, and all his plant, to that country, 

 where I understand he has been very successful, but I have heard 

 no details. Capt. Selliken virtually retired in 1888. This leaves 

 a total of thirty-one whaling vessels, against thirty-five in 1888. 

 I have no information concerning Kommandor S. Foyn or Herr 

 Gjsever; but, as on previous occasions, I have made bold to guess 

 at their numbers, so as to arrive at an approximate total, and 

 have, in the table at the end, printed these guesses in Roman 

 figures, so as to distinguish them from the certainties. Upon 

 these premises, I find that while the take in 1888 amounted to at 

 least 20| whales (of the four species) per ship, in 1889 the take 

 only reached about 14f . The principal falling off was in Blue 

 Whales, of which only about 20 were taken in 1889, against at 

 least 75 in 1888 ; and Humpbacks, about 8 only, instead of about 

 six times that number. 



