NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY. 29 



of produce is limited, and the prices have of late been ruling so 

 low that the industry seems to one who is only an onlooker in 

 danger of being greatly overdone. 



One excellent result, from a biological point of view, has 

 arisen from this fishery. The facilities thus offered for the 

 study of these animals under the most favourable conditions 

 have enabled Prof. Collett and Mr. A. H. Cocks, in Norway, 

 vastly to increase our knowledge of the Finwhales of this side 

 the Atlantic; and Dr. F. W. True, of the United States National 

 Museum, has done the same for those of the Western North 

 Atlantic, proving, in a most exhaustive monograph of the group, 

 that the Finwhales of the American waters are specifically 

 identical with those of the European coasts, and that they occur 

 in both regions in about the same proportions, with the excep- 

 tion of Balcenoptera borealis, which seems scarce on the American 

 side. The materials for Dr. True's study were derived chiefly 

 from the Newfoundland whaling stations. It does not follow, I 

 think, as I endeavoured to point out in a paper on the migrations 

 of the Eight Whale ('Nat. Sci.' June, 1898), that individual 

 Whales roam throughout the vast region ascribed to each species ; 

 it may even be that the range of each race is comparatively 

 limited, and that should it become extinct within that limit its 

 place will know it no more, which one fears will be the case with 

 the Eight Whale of the Greenland Seas ; that a wounded Finner 

 might, in its flurry, rush across the Atlantic is certainly possible 

 — indeed, there is one instance recorded in which such seems to 

 have been the case — but most likely it would find itself amongst 

 strangers in a " strange land." These remarks would equally 

 apply to the Eight Whale of the temperate seas of the northern 

 hemisphere (B. glacialis). 



The only species known to have a restricted and clearly 

 defined range is found in the Pacific — the Californian Grey 

 Whale (Bhachianectes glaueus), a very aberrant species. 



Dr. True points out that the Finwhales of Newfoundland are 

 smaller in all their proportions than those killed by the Nor- 

 wegians. As an explanation of this fact, he offers the suggestion, 

 but only as an alternative which he evidently does not adopt, 

 that if the Whales on both sides the Atlantic mingle together — 

 of which commingling there is practically no conclusive evidence 



