NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY. 69 



ceedings of the United States National Museum ' (xxi. pp. 617- 

 635) an exhaustive paper on the nomenclature of the Whalebone 

 Whales of the European waters, treated with his usual thorough- 

 ness ; and, whether or not European cetologists finally accept the 

 somewhat startling changes he advocates, they cannot but be 

 grateful for the analysis of the evidence on which he bases his 

 conclusions. It is rather out of place in this paper to discuss 

 the much-vexed question of the revision of nomenclature, but the 

 well-defined and not too numerous group of Cetacea seems 

 readily to lend itself for treatment in this respect, and surely by 

 a little forbearance and the sacrifice of some degree of senti- 

 ment, cetologists might be able to arrive at an arrangement by 

 which this section at least of the Mammalia might be cleared of 

 the nomenclatorial fog which surrounds it, and be settled once 

 for all on a firm and universal basis. 



The Whale fishery in the past season has on the whole been 

 fairly successful, but its most remarkable feature has been the 

 continued apparent absence of Right Whales in the Greenland 

 Seas, whereas in Davis Strait and in the adjoining waters they 

 have been seen in abundance. The ' Balaena ' cruised for three 

 months in the Greenland waters, during which time she saw only 

 one Whale ; this she captured on the 19th of May, on the north- 

 west fishing-grounds. It is difficult to account for this absence 

 of Whales from their former resorts, but it is doubtless due in 

 part to overfishing, and perhaps even more to the present unsuit- 

 able condition of their feeding grounds owing to the continued 

 absence of ice, a state of things which has continued for a 

 most unusual length of time, and is quite contrary co precedent 

 (see Zool. 1898, p. 73). In Davis Strait, on the other hand, 

 Whales were in plenty in all their usual resorts, but from the 

 many " escapes " it is probable they were very shy. There 

 appears also to be a fair proportion of old and young fish, which 

 promises well for the continuance of the species. The ' Diana ' 

 killed a mother and sucker in Lancaster Sound, early in July ; 

 also two other small Whales in the same locality. The 'Eclipse ' 

 also killed a very small Whale of four-foot bone, in Pond's Bay, 

 where young fish are rarely met with. In the same locality the 

 ' Diana ' met with a fighting fish which gave them some trouble ; 

 but although it attacked several of the boats, it was eventually 



