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out of the Bay, blowing blood. They followed her as fast as they 
could, they cut two of the boats from her, and left her towing one 
boat "with their Jack blowing, after taking the crew out of her, and 
in this condition the Whale went out of sight, and they never saw 
or heard of her again.” Allan says that when “she went round the 
South Head, a heavy sea being on at the time, and darkness 
coming on, the boats cut and let her go, leaving the boat which 
was stove fast to the Whale, the flag still blowing,” and that “ she 
went out to sea and was irever seeir again.” Captain Gray adds 
that “Captain William Volum, of the ‘Enterprise,’ and Captain 
Alex. Geary, of the ‘Hope,’ both took part in the chase, and in 
that year the ‘Hope’ returned from Greenland on the 30th June, 
and the ‘Enterprise’ on 30th July; consequently, it must have 
been some time after the latter date that the Whales came into the 
Bay; probably Webster is right when he names October.” 
The second instance referred to by Captain Gray came under his 
own observation. Whilst taking a walk round the “ Heads,” one 
Sunday morning before church, to the best of his recollection early 
in October, 1872, “I saw,” says Captain Gray, “a Greenland 
AVhalo within half a mile of the rocks oflf the South Head ; its 
appearance and movements were exactly the same as those I have 
seen in Spitzbergen waters.” This instance is not so conclusive 
as the previous one, but it is impossible for a man of Captain 
Gray’s great experience to have mistaken any other species of 
Whale for one of the Bulcenidce. 
The foregoing evidence I think clearly establishes the occurrence 
at Peterhead on one, if not two occasions, of Whales belonging to 
the family Balcenidce, for it is impossible to conceive that the 
experienced whalers could have mistaken a ‘ Einner ’ for a true 
‘ Eight-whale.’ My assumption that they must have belonged to 
the Southern or Atlantic species would take too much space 
adequately to support here, but elsewhere^' I have entered at 
length into the subject; and I think have shown that even in the 
present day such an occurrence is by no means improbable; 
whereas that the Greenland Whale has ever been found so far 
south of the Polar Seas, which constitute its natural habitation, is 
improbable in the extreme. 
* ‘Seals ami Whales of the British Seas,’ pp. 65— 6G. 
