68 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



previous season, the scarcity causing oil of this class to advance 

 to ^28 per ton. 



With reference to the Fin-Whale fishery recently established 

 by the " Cabot Whale-fishing Company" (see Notes for 1898, 

 p. 107), Mr. Thorburn has been kind enough to obtain for me 

 the following particulars : — The 'Cabot' fished in Hermitage 

 Bay in the end of February and during the month of March, 

 killing eleven Whales, all " Sulphur-bottoms." This species 

 was found in plenty in the locality named until the middle of 

 July, and any number could have been taken had the Company 

 been in a position to deal with them. Mr. Thorburn's informant 

 states that these immense Whales appear nearly always to be in 

 good condition, and he believes they reproduce only once in 

 three years. From the middle of July until the first week in 

 October the * Cabot ' fished in Notre Dame Bay, killing ninety- 

 eight Whales, nine of them "Humpbacks," the remainder 

 being " Finbacks." In October these Whales become scarce 

 and poor in condition, owing it is believed to their reproducing 

 some time previous to that date, and being engaged suckling 

 their young; they then leave the coast, probably following their 

 food supply. The ninety-eight Whales yielded 286 tons of oil 

 and six tons of bone ; the oil produced about £17 per ton ; the 

 " Whale-bone," I imagine, would be of little value. It will be 

 observed that, in speaking of the Whales killed by the Cabot 

 Company, I have used only the popular names applied to them 

 by their captors; this I have done advisedly, for, in addition to the 

 uncertainty with regard to their true species, and the unsettled 

 state of the nomenclature of the group, it was impossible to 

 speak with authority without opportunities of personal investiga- 

 tion, and might only add to the existing confusion ; it is there- 

 fore with pleasure that I hear from Dr. F. W. True, of the 

 United States National Museum, that he spent a month at the 

 station last summer, and that he hopes to do for the Newfound- 

 land Fin-Whales what Mr. A. H. Cocks and Prof. Robert 

 Collett have already done for a similar fishery on the coast 

 of Lapland. It is Dr. True's intention shortly to make known 

 the general result of his investigations, which will eventually be 

 embodied in a contemplated monograph of the Finbacks of the 

 American waters. Dr. True has already published in the ' Pro- 



