WITH THE WHALE BS AT DURBAN. 205 



but a waist-cloth ; but they appear to revel in the blood and 

 grease. 



When I called at the factory just before sailing for home at 

 the beginning of November, I was told that the Union Company 

 had taken about 460 Whales in the season, and the South 

 African about 490, of which my boat, the ' Urnau,' had accounted 

 for 130, and headed the list of all boats for the season. 



NOTES TAKEN AT THE WHALING FACTOEY, DURBAN, 

 AUGUST 31st, 1911. 



Female Humpback Whale (Megaptera hoops), 60 ft. long. — 

 Standing by the side of this Whale as she lay on her abdomen, I 

 should say the top of the back was about 9 ft. from the ground. 



The upper part of the body is uniformly black, the under 

 surface is white, marbled with black streaks and blotches ; this 

 is also the colour of the large plicae under the throat and lower 

 jaw; the upper part of the " flippers " is also black, the under 

 part white. 



Note. — The model of the Megaptera in the Natural History 

 Museum, South Kensington, is much too dark on its under 

 surface ; it should be, as stated above, white, marbled with black 

 streaks and blotches. This was the colour of all the Humpbacks 

 I saw at Durban. 



The " nippers " are 12 ft. long, sometimes more, and 3 ft. 

 across at their widest part ; there is a row of tubercles on their 

 anterior margins, which are rounded, the posterior margins being 

 thin. The tubercles give the anterior margins a serrated appear- 

 ance (Plate I. fig. 2). 



These tubercles are found also round the anterior margin of 

 the lower jaw, and rows of them on the face and upper jaw; I 

 cut into some of them, and found they were merely composed of 

 " blubber " and skin. 



Every Whale caught is infested with barnacles ; they are 

 numerous round the jaws, on the flippers, and always round the 

 genital sheath. Some of these barnacles (B alarms coronula) are 

 as much as an inch and a half in diameter, and they are embedded 

 in the skin. There were several large wounds in the skin of 

 this Whale, some on the upper part and sides of the body, 



