glance the precise position assigned to each species, in the two main
divisions into which the order is divided:--
BRITISH CETACEA.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| SUB-ORDER. FAMILY. SUB-FAMILY. GENERA. |
| |
| {Balænidæ Balæninæ Balæna |
| =1.= { |
|MYSTACOCETI { {Megapterinæ Megaptera |
| (=Whalebone-Whales.=) {Balænopteridæ { |
| {Balænopterinæ Balænoptera |
| |
| |
| |
| {Physeterinæ Physeter |
| {Physeteridæ { {Hyperoodon |
| { { { |
| { {Ziphiinæ {Ziphius |
| =2.= { {Mesoplodon |
|ODONTOCETI { { Beluginæ {Monodon |
| (=Toothed Whales.=) { { {Delphinapterus |
| {Delphinidæ { {Orca |
| { {Grampus |
| { Delphininæ {Globicephalus |
| {Phocœna |
| { |
| { Delphinus |
| |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| SUB-ORDER. SPECIES. |
| |
| {(?) B. mysticetus, _Right-Whale_ |
| =1.= {B. biscayensis, _Atlantic Right-Whale_ |
|MYSTACOCETI M. longimana, _Hump-backed Whale_ |
| (=Whalebone-Whales.=) {B. musculus, _Common Rorqual_ |
| {B. sibbaldii, _Sibbald’s_ ” |
| {B. laticeps, _Rudolphi’s_ ” |
| {B. rostrata, _Lesser_ ” |
| |
| P. macrocephalus, _Sperm Whale_ |
| {H. rostratum, _Beaked Whale_ |
| {H. latifrons, _Broad-fronted Beaked Whale_|
| Z. cavirostris, _Cuvier’s Whale_ |
| =2.= M. bidens, _Sowerby’s Whale_ |
|ODONTOCETI M. monoceros, _Narwhal_ |
| (=Toothed Whales.=) D. leucas, _White Whale, or Beluga_ |
| O. gladiator, _Grampus, or Killer_ |
| G. griseus, _Risso’s Grampus_ |
| G. melas, _Pilot Whale_ |
| P. communis, _Porpoise_ |
| {D. delphis, _Common Dolphin_ |
| {D. tursio, _Bottle-nosed Dolphin_ |
| {D. acutus, _White-sided Dolphin_ |
| {D. albirostris, _White-beaked Dolphin_ |
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
MYSTACOCETI (WHALEBONE WHALES.)
_BALÆNIDÆ._
THE GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE.
The first species, both in order and importance, of the Family
_Balænidæ_ is the well-known _Balæna mysticetus_, the GREENLAND, or
RIGHT-WHALE as it is called by the whalers. So extremely doubtful,
however, are the claims of this animal to a place in the British Fauna,
that it is retained in the present treatise solely on account of the
great interest attaching to it as a species, and not from any idea
of maintaining for it a position, which, although hitherto assigned
to it, has now become untenable. The use of the term well-known is
perhaps unadvised; for, although this species has engaged the energies
and industry of the merchant seamen of Northern Europe for centuries,
so little was known of it scientifically, that not a single skeleton
had ever found its way into any European museum, until Eschricht
obtained one from Holsteinborg, in Greenland, in 1846. The recorded
instances of the supposed occurrence of this species in the British
Seas are unsatisfactory in the extreme. The most positive record is
that in Messrs. Paget’s ‘Natural History of Great Yarmouth.’ They say:
“_Balæna mysticetus_--common Whale--a small one taken near Yarmouth,
July 8, 1784.” Sir James Paget, however, in a letter to the Author,
is unable to add to the brief statement, as will be seen from the
following extract from his communication:--“I am sorry I can give you
no information respecting the Whale taken off Yarmouth in 1784; I
have no notes as to the source from which I derived the statement, but
probably it was from some MS. of Mr. Dawson Turner’s. It is not likely
that any bones of the Whale were kept in Yarmouth, for there was no
naturalist there at the time, and the whaling-trade, which was then
actively carried on from the port, must have made Whales’ bones very
common.” This is all that is ever likely to be learned of the Yarmouth
Right-whale; but the season at which it occurred would render the
heated seas on our coast utterly unbearable to an ice-loving inhabitant
of the Arctic seas. This, with its small size, would seem to point
to a closely-allied species to be mentioned soon. Sibbald records
the occurrence of what he considers was probably a Right-whale, at
Peterhead, in 1682; and a Whale recorded at Tynemouth by Willughby may
have been of this species. In the first edition of Bell’s ‘Quadrupeds’
is a communication from the Rev. Mr. Barclay to the effect that on the
coast of Zetland dead or very lean Whales of this species have several
times been found or have run aground; but in the second edition of the
same work the authors state that “there is no proof these references do
not apply to some other species.” The same may be said with reference
to Low’s remarks in the ‘Fauna Orcadensis,’ p. 158. This is all we know
of the supposed occurrence of Right-Whales in British waters in recent
times, and there is little doubt that these, if Right-Whales at all,
should be referred to the next species.
The extreme northern habitat assigned to this species by those who
have devoted much time and labour to the investigation of the subject,
clearly proves that it must either have changed its habitat, which its
present habits seem to render improbable, or that some other species
formerly inhabited the temperate seas outside the Arctic circle
extending southward to the Atlantic as far as latitude 40°, for it is
beyond doubt that a brisk whale-fishery was carried on in former times
by the Basque population in the Bay of Biscay and adjacent seas as far
back as the 8th or 10th century. That such a southern species, distinct
from the northern Right-whale did exist, is proved by Professors
Eschricht and Reinhardt in their splendid memoir of the ‘Greenland
Whale,’ a translation of which, edited by Professor Flower, was
published by the ‘Ray Society’ in 1866, and of that species we shall
give some account further on.
[Illustration: Fig. 12. GREENLAND RIGHT-WHALE (_Balæna mysticetus_,
Linn.)]
It has been asserted that the Greenland Whales supposed formerly to
have visited our coasts, have been driven north by the increased
traffic in the more frequented seas of temperate Europe; but from the
habits of this species as observed on the west coast of Greenland, at
the fishing stations established by the Danish Government, and recorded
in the memoir just referred to, no confirmation of this theory is
afforded. The fishery at these stations was prosecuted from the shore
when the Whales appeared upon the coast in the winter months; as the
spring advanced they followed the receding ice-line, and were seen in
summer as far north in Baffin’s Bay as ships had at that time succeeded
in penetrating, whilst their southward range in winter was always
limited by a rather northerly degree of latitude. This, it is shown,
went on with the greatest regularity for at least 80 years, during
which the Whales constantly made their appearance at the same places,
at the same season, without the slightest alteration taking place. The
fact of the Whales always moving northward as the ice breaks up, will
account for their being found in the spring in different latitudes;
thus, on the Greenland coast, they are found, at this season, in
latitude 65° 25′; but in Davis’ Strait, in 61° to 62°, always, however,
inseparable from the ice. Messrs. Eschricht and Reinhardt thus
conclude: “It seems, therefore, that the Whales have not retreated
further north, as they are still found within precisely the same limits
in which they were found at the beginning of the persecution, but in
numbers so diminished that the fishery will hardly repay the trouble
and expense attending it.”
Capt. Feilden, the naturalist to Sir Geo. Nares’s Arctic expedition,
speaking of the Northern range of this species, says he is quite
satisfied that “no Whale could inhabit at the present day the frozen
sea to the north of Robeson Channel. To penetrate from the North-water
of Baffin Bay to Robeson Channel, would be a hazardous task for
this great animal, and in this opinion the experienced whaling
quartermasters, who accompanied our Expedition, coincided. We may
dismiss from our minds the idea or hope that nearer to the Pole, and
beyond the limits of present discovery, there may be haunts in the
Polar Sea suitable for the Right-whale. I do not look for the speedy
extinction of the Greenland Whale; but it is probable that in a few
years the fishing will no longer prove profitable to the fine fleet
of whalers that now sail from our northern ports, and I see no hope
of Arctic discovery increasing our knowledge of the range of this
animal.”[19]
The southern limit of the Right-whale in the Northern ocean may be
shown by a line drawn from the coast of Lapland at 70°, just touching
the southern point of Iceland, and ending on the coast of Labrador at
about 55° north latitude.
The whaling-trade, which once employed so many hardy seamen, is now
reduced to very narrow limits, and appears to have passed almost
entirely into the hands of the English, or rather Scotch. The Biscayans
were not content with exterminating the Whales found in their own seas,
but in 1721 they had twenty vessels in the Greenland fishery; the Dutch
also took a large part in the trade; and in the year 1680, when they
appear to have been the most actively engaged in the fishery, they are
said to have had about 260 ships and 14,000 men employed. In 1725 the
South Sea Company embarked in the trade, but meeting with considerable
losses, speedily gave it up. The Government, in order to encourage this
languishing branch of industry, in 1732 granted a bounty of 20s. per
ton on the oil; this, being found insufficient, was increased in 1749
to 40s. per ton, which caused a considerable increase in the number
of vessels; but upon Parliament, in 1777, reducing the bounty to 30s.
per ton, the number of vessels rapidly fell off from 105 to 39; the
bounty was then, in 1781, raised to its old level, with a corresponding
increase in the number of vessels employed. Then followed a gradual
process of reduction, until in the year 1824 the bounty altogether
ceased, and the ships fell off from 112 in 1824, to 88 in 1827.[20]
During the nine years ending 1818 there was an average of 91 English
(sailing from eight ports), and forty-one Scotch ships (sailing from
nine ports) employed in the trade; in 1830 they were reduced to 41
English vessels (sailing from five ports), to which Hull contributed
33, and 50 Scotch vessels (sailing from seven ports), to which
Peterhead contributed 13, and Dundee 9.
The years 1819 and 1830 were both very disastrous to the whale-trade;
in the former year fourteen British vessels were lost, and in the
latter, nineteen British ships were totally wrecked, and twelve
seriously injured. The number of ships employed has since gradually
decreased, and at present Dundee and Peterhead are the only two ports
in Great Britain engaged in the whale-fishery. Dundee sends out fifteen
powerful steam-vessels, which leave about the beginning of May, and
if fortunate in filling up, return, according to circumstances, from
August to the beginning of November. Peterhead sends five steamers and
one sailing vessel; they are ship-rigged, and from two to five hundred
tons register, and 40 to 100 horse power. The expense now incurred
renders it necessary that a large number of Whales should be taken to
make the voyage pay: the _Arctic_, in her voyage of 1873, captured
twenty-eight Whales, which were estimated to produce in oil and bone
£18,925, or about £678 per Whale, the best Whale, a female with sucker,
was estimated at £1,500, and the smallest at only £110. An average
Whale produces 9½ tons of oil, a ton measuring 252 gallons, and 7 ft.
6 in. of whalebone; the longest bone cut of the twenty-eight fish was
11 ft. 9 in. and the shortest 2 ft. 6 in. This was considered a very
successful year. The whale-fishery was commenced at Peterhead in 1788;
since that time, up to the year 1879, Captain David Gray informs me
that 995 voyages have been made to the Greenland and Davis’ Straits
whale and seal-fisheries, and there have been brought home 4195 Whales,
furnishing 30,975 tons of oil, and 1549 tons of whalebone, besides
1,673,052 Seals, yielding 20,913 tons of oil, leaving a nett profit
of £583,020, or £586 per ship per voyage. The Dundee whale-fishery
commenced in 1790, and the seal-fishery in 1860; since that time up to
the season of 1879, 538 voyages have been made to the Greenland and
Davis’ Straits whale and seal-fisheries, including Labrador, which have
produced 4220 Whales, yielding 32,774 tons of oil and 1640 tons of
whalebone, besides 917,278 Seals, yielding 10,464 tons of oil, valued
together at £2,160,400, leaving a nett profit of £652,320, or £1212
10s. per ship per voyage. Capt. Gray adds: “I have often been asked
where all the Whales are gone to; let the above figures be the reply.”
The present price of whale-oil is from £28 to £30 per ton, the
whalebone ranging as high as £1100 per ton, according to the length of
the bone; but although there are exceptions, of late years the fishery,
as a whole, is said, on good authority, not to have paid the heavy
expenses of the fleet engaged in it, nor does there seem much prospect
of improvement, mineral oil being now used for many purposes for which
formerly whale and seal oil was required. One of the chief uses to
which whale and seal oil are now applied is in the preparation of the
jute fibre, the manufacture of which is so extensively carried on at
the port of Dundee, also the chief centre of the whaling-trade.
An interesting account of a whaling voyage in the ship _Arctic_,
and full particulars of the mode pursued in taking, and subsequent
treatment of the fish, is given by Captain A. H. Markham, in his
‘Whaling Cruise to Baffin’s Bay.’[21]
The usual length of a full-grown Right-whale is about 50 feet; but Dr.
Brown, in his paper on the Cetaceans of the Greenland Seas (_P. Z. S._,
1868, p. 539), gives the dimensions of one which measured 65 feet. The
general colour is black. The mouth occupies about one-third of the
entire length, and the baleen is from 10 to 12 feet long; it has been
known to reach the great length of 13 ft. 2 in., and 9 in. in width.
This baleen, which is found depending from the upper jaw, consists
of a number of horny plates, similar in structure to the horn of the
rhinoceros, consisting of a fibrous mass glutinated together in the
solid portion, and placed transversely along either side of the palate;
they are arranged closely together, with the external edge smooth,
and gradually thinning off towards the inner margin, which ends in a
fringe of long hair-like fibres: the number of laminæ is about 300 on
each side.[22] Captain David Gray, of the _Eclipse_, an experienced
whaler, in a communication to ‘Land and Water,’ on December 1, 1877,
pointed out and first satisfactorily explained the means by which these
extraordinary appendages are disposed of when the mouth of the Whale
is closed. He shows that when the mouth is shut, the slender ends of
the whalebone curve backwards towards the throat, the longer ones from
the middle of the jaw falling into the hollow formed by the shortness
of those behind them; when the animal opens its mouth to feed, the
whalebone springs forward and downwards, thus always by its elasticity,
filling up the space between the upper and lower jaws, whether the
mouth be fully or only partially open, and interposing a strainer
between the cavity of the mouth and the external water, effectually
preventing the food which enters the mouth from passing out with the
flow of water which passes through the mouth as the great beast pursues
and captures its minute food.
The Whale whilst feeding swims along with its mouth open, until it
has collected a quantity of the small marine animals which form its
food; then, closing its capacious under jaw, it forces out the water
between the plates of baleen, leaving the captive prey stranded on
its huge tongue, when it swallows them at leisure. The food of the
Greenland Whale consists entirely of small marine animals, particularly
a kind of shrimp, found in great abundance in the Arctic seas. This
species seldom remains under water longer than from ten to fifteen
minutes, returning to the surface to breathe, which, if undisturbed,
occupies from two to three minutes. Capt. Gray, however, has known
it when harpooned to stay under water fifty minutes. Professor Owen
describes the wonderful provision for storing of blood in a vast plexus
of blood-vessels found in the Cetacea, at the back of the lungs and
between them and the ribs, thus enabling them, although lung-breathing
animals, to stay under water for so protracted a period, and states
that the peculiar non-valvular structure of the veins of the Cetacea,
and the pressure on these reservoirs of blood at the depths to which
they retreat when harpooned, explain the profuse and lethal hæmorrhage
which follows a wound, that in other mammalia would not be fatal.[23]
[Illustration: Fig. 13. ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE (_Balæna biscayensis_,
Eschricht), after Capellini.]
The Right-Whale is believed by Eschricht and Reinhardt to bring forth
its single young one (rarely two) about the end of March or beginning
of May, and the time of gestation to be thirteen or fourteen months,
so that it will bring forth only every other year; Scoresby considers
that they go eight or nine months, and bring forth in February or
March.[24] The young one is supposed to be suckled for twelve months,
during which time the baleen is gradually developed. In disposition,
the Greenland Whale is timid and retiring; the chief danger in its
capture arises from its rapid descent when harpooned; the line is then
carried out with such speed that, should it foul or all run out and
not be immediately cut, the boat will be upset or carried under water.
Capt. David Gray estimates the speed of a struck or scared Whale at
about eight miles an hour, and the ordinary speed at about four miles,
whether sounding or along the surface. It has never been known to
attack a boat, but accidents sometimes happen if approached too closely
in its death “flurry,” which is said to be very terrible to witness.
Its fondness for its young is such that if the “sucker” be killed the
old one readily falls a victim, and the whalers do not fail to avail
themselves, for their own advantage, of this amiable trait in its
character.
THE ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE.
Until recently it was believed that a Whale formerly common in
the temperate waters of the North Atlantic was identical with the
Right-Whale of the Arctic seas, of which we have just given an account,
but Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt have successfully shown, as
stated in the previous article, that such is not the case, the habits
of the two animals, as well as the localities frequented by each, being
totally distinct. They have, therefore, described the more southern
form as a distinct species, under the name of _Balæna biscayensis_, or
the ATLANTIC RIGHT-WHALE, the “Sarde” of the French, “Nordkaper” of the
Dutch, and “Sletbag” of the Iceland whalers of former days.
As early as the twelfth century, long before the whale-fishery was
prosecuted in the Arctic seas, a brisk trade was carried on by the
Basque fishermen from the Biscayan ports. That this fishery must have
been of considerable importance, in a mercantile point of view, there
can be no doubt, from the numerous references to be met with in early
records; for instance, in 1261, a tithe was laid upon the tongues of
all Whales imported into Bayonne, where they formed a much-esteemed
article of food, and in 1338 a duty of £6 a Whale on those brought
into the port of Biarritz was relinquished by Edward III. to Peter de
Puyanne for services rendered; these and other like records extant show
that for a long period this branch of industry was briskly prosecuted.
Gradually, however, the Whales became more and more scarce, and the
hardy Basque seamen, after following their prey to Newfoundland and
Iceland, shortly after the discovery of Spitsbergen in 1596 found their
all-but-lost occupation suddenly revive; the “Sletbag” was left behind,
but the home of the true Greenland Whale, a much more valuable animal,
was for the first time invaded, and that species, which then abounded
in the seas surrounding Spitzbergen, speedily became the object of the
whalers’ attack; many vessels were fitted out for its pursuit which
carried Biscayan harpooners, the crews, also, generally consisting, in
part, of these hardy seamen.
So recently as the close of the last century, the Atlantic Right-whale
was not infrequent in the North Atlantic; it was regularly caught on
the coast of Nantucket, and occasionally by the American Whalers on the
coast of Iceland; it has, however, now become very rare. Professors
Eschricht and Reinhardt thus summarise the distinctive characters of
the “Sletbag,” “Sarde,” or “Nordkaper,” so far as they have been able
to glean from all the sources accessible to them, and consider the
species identical with their _B. biscayensis_:--
1. “That it was much more active than the Greenland Whale, much
quicker, and more violent in its movements, and, accordingly, both
more difficult and more dangerous to catch.”
2. “That it was smaller (it being, however, impossible to give an
exact statement of its length), and had much less blubber.”
3. “That its head was shorter, and that its whalebone was,
comparatively speaking, much thicker, but scarcely more than half
as long as that of the Greenland Whale, being, however, still much
longer than that of even the very largest Fin-Whale, although the
‘Sletbag’ itself probably scarcely attained to half the length of the
last-named.”
4. “That it was regularly infested with a Cirriped belonging to the
genus _Coronula_, and that it belonged to the temperate Northern
Atlantic as exclusively as the Greenland Whale belonged to the icy
Polar Sea, so that it must be considered as equally exceptional when
either of these species strayed into the range of the other, and,
moreover, that in its native sea it was to be found farthest towards
south in the winter (namely, in the Bay of Biscay, and near the coast
of North America, down to Cape Cod), while in the summer it roved
about in the sea round Iceland and between this Island and the most
northerly part of Norway.”[25]