1914-15.] The Baleen Whales of the South Atlantic, 
11 
II. — The Baleen Whales of the South Atlantic. By Sir William 
Turner, Emeritus Professor of Anatomy, K.C.B., F.R.S., D.C.L. 
(MS. received October 26, 1914. Read November 2, 1914.) 
Whaling companies have for some years successfully conducted a whale 
fishery off the shores of the South Shetlands, Graham Land, South Orkneys, 
and South Georgia, where the waters of the Antarctic mingle with the 
South Atlantic Ocean. 
A year ago Mr G. Millen Coughtrey, a former student of the University, 
an employe of the New Whaling Company of Leith, Messrs Salvesen 
& Co., kindly presented to me specimens from this southern latitude, which 
have been of value and interest in extending our knowledge of the Cetacea 
frequenting these seas. In a memoir communicated to the Society in 
December of that year * I described from these specimens the external 
Auditory Meatus and its plug of wax, also the Tympano-petrous bones 
in several species of Cetacea, which, when compared with the corresponding 
bones in the Anatomical Museum of the University, were identified as 
from the Blue Whale, Balamoptera sibbaldi, the Sye Whale, Balcenoptera 
borealis, the common Rorqual, Balcenoptera musculus, and the Humpbacked 
Whale, Megaptera boops (longimana). It was clear, therefore, that 
these well-known Northern species were also denizens of the South 
Atlantic.]- 
In September of this year Mr Coughtrey added to the collection by 
kindly presenting specimens obtained from whales captured off the South 
Shetlands and Graham Land during the fishing season 1 9 13-14, which have 
further extended our knowledge of the species of Cetacea that frequent 
the Southern Ocean. This collection, in addition to examples from 
B. sibbaldi, B. borealis, and Megaptera boops, contained a tympano-petrous 
bone of the South Atlantic Right Whale, also a tympanic bone and foetus 
* Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxxiv. p. 10, Dec, 1, 1913. 
t In a recently published memoir Mr Theodore E, Salvesen has described the Whale 
Fisheries of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies. He enumerates Megaptera, the three 
species of Balgenoptera referred to in the text, and the Southern Right Whale, Balcena 
australis, baleen whales captured by the whalers. He estimates that nearly 11,000 
animals were killed during the season, November 1, 1912, to April 30, 1913. He gives the 
approximate value of the whalebone and oil from each species respectively, that of the fresh 
flesh as food, and of the whale guano as a manure. The gross value of these products was 
about £1,350,000. See Report on Scie7itific Results of Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 
vol. xix.. May 12, 1914. 
