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Part III. — Seventh Annual Report 



the old males frequenting the ice and feeding banks south from the 75° 

 N. latitude, where occasionally an old female may be got amongst them, 

 but not exceeding one to twelve of bull whales. For years there may be 

 no whales found on the feeding banks off the east coast of Greenland. 

 There are various reasons that can be given for this. The ice may not 

 be suitable or not so much to their liking as the ice further north. It 

 also sometimes happens that there are very rich feeding banks south of 

 the 75°, and in other seasons little or no whales' food can be found. The 

 ice also may occasionally lie too near the land and inside the best feeding 

 banks. In this case the whales disappear further north for better cover. 

 Whales will never lie on banks where there is not sufficient ice for them 

 to find shelter in. In fact, now-a-days whales are like rabbits or rats — 

 never to be found far away from their holes, more particularly since the 

 introduction of steam. The old females, with the younger whales of both 

 sexes, bury themselves in the Polar ice north of 80° after the end of June, 

 where no ship can follow them, retreating in the autumn southwards as 

 the ice makes in the north. This whale fishers know from seeing the 

 same class of whales in the following spring coming up from the south, to 

 disappear again in the Arctic ice when it opens up sufficiently to allow 

 them breathing space and room to feed in. By this we ascertain that the 

 Greenland whale migrates south in the autumn and north in the spring, 

 but how far in each direction is not known. 



There is very little evidence to show that whales migrate from Davis 

 Straits to Greenland, or vice versa. The only instance that I know of was 

 a small whale killed in Greenland by the ' Kate' of Peterhead in 1866, 

 in 80° N. latitude, when an Esquimaux harpoon was found in it, which is 

 certain proof that this whale must have been first struck in Davis Straits, 

 there being no natives on the east coast of Greenland. 



The food of the Greenland whale consists of all sorts of minute Crustacea 

 and the Medusa tribe, but their staple food without doubt is a small 

 crustacean about a quarter of an inch long with red feelers standing out 

 from each side of the head, which the whale fishers call ' rice food,' being 

 exactly similar in shape and size to that grain. No doubt, whales are very 

 particular in the quality of their food, because they are never to be got 

 feeding where the water is dirty. They are almost invariably to be seen 

 feeding in clean, clear, dark blue or light olive green water. 



The usual way a whale feeds is to choose a spot where the food is 

 plentiful, and swim backwards and forwards for two or three hundred 

 yards with the nose just under the water ; or sometimes, when the food is 

 very near the surface, the nose with part of the whalebone can be seen 

 above it. Whales when feeding invariably swim from one side of their 

 beat back again to where they started from with their mouths open. 

 They then close their jaws, lie quietly on the surface of the water for a 

 short time, and swallow the food caught. 



A whale's mouth is like a bag-net. The whalebone is fringed with hair 

 inside, which represents the meshes, and which prevents the food from 

 escaping through between the slips of bone along with the water; the 

 whulebone being curved backwards to allow the water to flow freely out 

 of the sides of the mouth while the whale is moving. Whales will go on 

 in this way constantly feeding for an hour or more at a time ; after that 

 they will disappear under the nearest ice, and sleep there until they come 

 out again for exercise or for another meal. Sometimes, if the weather is 

 fine and the sun warm, they will fall asleep on the surface of the water 

 near where they have been feeding, and will lie quite motionless for hours 

 at a time. 



Whales, unlike other warm-blooded animals do not require to breathe 



