of the previous article, which may almost with certainty be referred
to this species, I am enabled, through the kindness of my friend,
Captain David Gray, of Peterhead, to record two other instances of the
occurrence of the Atlantic Right-Whale in British waters. With regard
to the first case, Captain Gray was good enough to obtain for me the
independent testimony of two old men, James Webster and John Allan,
both of whom are still living at Peterhead, and were witnesses of the
events which they relate. The two statements coincide so remarkably,
making allowance for the lapse of so many years, that it is only
necessary to give one. James Webster, 85 years of age, remembers
Greenland Whales coming into South Bay of Peterhead: at that time he
would have been about 10 years of age [Jno. Allan says “it was in 1806
or 1807, same year as the new parish church was opened;” this was in
1806, and agrees with Webster’s statement that he was 10 years old at
the time]. Remembers them being an old Whale and a sucker. Saw five
boats go out after them; as far as he recollects, thinks it was the
month of October [“in the summer-time,” Allan]. They struck the old
Whale, and put three harpoons into her, then they struck the sucker
and killed it; brought the sucker ashore and flenched it at the South
Quay. [Allan says “they killed the young Whale, and flenched her at the
South Quay: she, having sunk, it was two or three days after, before
they got her in.”] After they had three harpoons in the old Whale, she
went twice up into the head of the Bay, going so far that she turned
the sand up, and then she stove two of the boats, and broke Mackie’s,
one of the harpooners, legs. [Allan does not remember the name of the
injured man, and thinks only one boat was stove.] After this, the Whale
took a run, and went 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 never seen again. Capt. Gray adds that “Capt. Wm. Volum, of the
‘Enterprise,’ and Capt. Alex. Geary, of the ‘Hope,’ both took part in
the chase, and in that year the ‘Hope’ returned from Greenland on 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 Whale within half a mile of
the rocks off the South Head; its appearance and movements were exactly
the same as those I have seen in Spitsbergen waters.” Accustomed, as
Captain Gray has been for many years, to watch the appearance and
actions of the northern species of Right-Whale, in the Polar seas, it
seems impossible for a man of his great experience to have mistaken any
other species of Whale for one of the _Balæninæ_.
Of course, there still remains the question as to whether these Whales
were the Greenland or Atlantic species, but I think the consideration
of the circumstances under which they occurred, leaves no doubt what
the reply must be. Captain Gray writes--“Until you began to question
the identity of these Whales harpooned here in 1806, no one had ever
had the smallest doubt of their being Greenland Whales,” and that had
there been any marked difference in their appearance, it would have
been at once noticed by such experienced men as those who captured
the Whale at Peterhead; but he adds that “so far as the habits of
the Greenland Whale are known, it is contrary to our experience that
they should visit our shores at the season of the year at which these
Whales were seen here, when we know that the Arctic Whale regularly
disappears into the depths of the Polar ice towards the end of summer,
where no ships or steamers can follow them.” It would naturally be
expected that, towards the end of summer the Atlantic Whale would also
be approaching the northern limit of its range, and this is precisely
the season when all the Whales of this description, of which the date
is given, appear to have occurred, except two in a much more southerly
locality, (their proper winter habitat) shortly to be mentioned. That
the Peterhead men did not speak of any marked difference in the Whale
which visited their Bay and those they had just returned from pursuing
in the Polar ice may perhaps be accounted for partly by the similarity
of the two species, and partly by their not having killed the adult
individual; whilst the restless activity of the latter may possibly be
due, not only to the presence of its young one, but, in part, to the
superior activity of the Atlantic species, which is said to render it
so much more dangerous and difficult to catch.
But it may be said that if there be such a species, having a range,
which in summer extends from the entrance of Davis’ Strait to Iceland
and the North Cape, why are they not occasionally met with by the
whalers in crossing the Atlantic to and from their more northern
fishing grounds? Although such an encounter with a creature confessedly
of rare occurrence would be in the highest degree improbable, still
here again, through the kindness of Capt. Gray I am able to say that
such encounters have taken place, and could we know the experience of
all the whalers who have crossed the Atlantic, perhaps other instances
might be put on record. Captain David Gray’s father told him that while
mate to his father (Capt. David Gray’s grandfather), when crossing the
Atlantic on the homeward voyage from Davis’ Strait, the vessel ran into
a Greenland Whale (as he supposed it) and that he was anxious to lower
some boats and go after it, but that his father would not allow him to
do so, there being too much sea running at that time. This again would
be in the summer season. It seems probable that not being aware of the
existence of a Southern species of Right-Whale, or in consequence of
the high sea which was running at the time, the Grays did not observe,
or, at least, failed to mention, the peculiarities which distinguish
the Atlantic species. But I am indebted to Capt. Gray for other
instances of the occurrence of this species not far from Cape Farewell,
and in at least one case the species was identified, the observer being
aware of the existence of the Atlantic Whale, and the circumstances
apparently favourable for close observation. On the 1st May, 1868,
Capt. Alexander Murray, now commanding the S.S. “Windward,” at that
time trading to South Greenland, in the “Sir Colin Campbell,” saw near
Cape Farewell, several Right-Whales, close enough to distinguish their
different features and general appearance. Capt. Murray remarks that,
“they are a shorter Whale than the Greenland and much flatter in the
crown;” he also noticed “Barnacles and grass near the blow-holes,” and
states that from conversations he has had with American shipmasters
employed in hunting these Whales, that these parasites are always
present in this species, whereas the Greenland Whales are as invariably
free from them. Capt. Murray adds that in 1867 three American whalers
came into Cumberland Gulf, one having six, one three, and the other
two Atlantic Whales on board, all of which were taken in the summer,
a little to the eastward of Cape Farewell; and, finally, Capt. Gray’s
brother, who commands the Hudson Bay Company’s Steamer, “Labrador,”
told him that in June, 1879, he saw two of these Whales in lat. 57 N.
and long. 33 W.; they were close alongside, and the weather at the time
calm: they went away in a south-westerly direction. It would seem,
indeed, that this species is not at all an infrequent summer visitor to
the open sea, lying to the east of Cape Farewell.
Two recent instances of the occurrence of this species on the eastern
side of the Atlantic are on record, both of which were met with in
winter, and in the warmer latitudes of the Bay of Biscay and the
Mediterranean Sea. On the 17th of January, 1854, a young one with its
mother appeared in the harbour of St. Sebastian; the mother escaped,
but the little one was caught, and a drawing of it made by Dr. Monedero
(reproduced in Bell’s ‘Brit. Quad.,’ 2nd Edit. p. 387); the skeleton
was preserved for the museum of Pampeluna, thence it was removed
by Prof. Eschricht in 1858 to the Copenhagen Museum, for which he
purchased it. Also, on the 9th February, 1877, a Whale was captured
in the Gulf of Taranto, which has been referred to this species, and
these, I believe, are the only specimens which have been taken in
European waters of late years; it seems very probable, however, that
the “Black-Whale” of the temperate shores of N. America (the _B.
cisarctica_ of Cope) is identical with _B. biscayensis_, and that,
although extinct on the eastern side of the Atlantic, individuals from
the American waters occasionally find their way into the European
seas, where the race formerly existed as a native. The skeleton of
the Taranto specimen is now in the Museum of Comparative Anatomy of
the University of Naples, and M. F. Gasco states positively that
“both the Taranto Whale and that of Philadelphia (_B. cisarctica_,
Cope) belong to the species _B. biscayensis_, of Eschricht, which,
for several centuries was pursued with avidity--I was going to say
exterminated--throughout the temperate regions of the North Atlantic,
first by the Basques, and then successively by the Saintongeois, the
Normans, the Dutch (who called it _Nordkaper_), the Danes, Norwegians,
English, and Americans.”[26] The cervical vertebræ in the British
Museum, which form the type of Gray’s _Halibalæna britannica_ are also
believed to belong to this species.
Dr. Gray did not recognize _Balæna biscayensis_ as a good species,
and accounted for the absence of the Right-Whales, formerly found in
British waters, from the disturbed state of the seas, owing to the
great increase in traffic of ships, and especially steam-vessels,
which, he said, “appears to restrict their visits, and especially
their breeding, more to the Arctic portion; thus some Whales, which
were formerly said to be common on the coast of Britain, as the
Right-Whales, no longer visit this country.” Eschricht, however, as
before stated, has clearly shown that the habits of the northern
Right-Whale and localities frequented by them have remained unchanged
for many years, as proved by the record kept at the whaling-stations
established by the Danish government on the west coast of Greenland.
It is worthy of remark, that in the Southern ocean there are said to be
two species of Right-Whale, one _Caperea antipodorum_ (Gray), not found
further north than 40° south latitude; the other, _Eubalæna australis_
(Gray), found as near the equator as 20° south latitude.
The illustration at p. 60 is a reduced copy of the coloured plate
in Capellini’s account of the Taranto Whale (_‘Della Balena di
Taranto,’ G. Capellini, Bologna_, 1877), the original of which was a
carefully-executed water-colour drawing, made from the animal itself.
_BALÆNOPTERIDÆ._
THE HUMP-BACKED WHALE.
The next family, _Balænopteridæ_, is represented by two genera,
_Megaptera_ and _Balænoptera_. Like the Right-whales, they all have two
blow-holes, but may readily be distinguished by having the throat and
belly curiously marked with longitudinal furrows, like the ribs in a
worsted stocking: they also possess a well-defined dorsal fin.
The HUMP-BACKED WHALE, _Megaptera longimana_ (Rudolphi), the only
member of the first genus known to occur in the British seas, has
been recorded at least three times; first at Newcastle in September,
1839, again in the estuary of the Dee, in 1863, and in Wick Bay,
Caithnesshire, in March, 1871. Capt. Gray tells me they are not
uncommon off the east coast of Scotland in summer, and that he has
known several captured off Peterhead, three having been brought in
in one season. It is possible other examples may have been mistaken
for Rorquals, from which this species may at once be distinguished
externally by the great length of its flippers, which are white and
very conspicuous.
Herr Collett says that this species is met with every spring, on the
northern coast of Norway, particularly in the Varanger Fjord; although
generally occurring in small numbers, it is occasionally found in great
quantities. On one occasion a steam vessel was surrounded by them
as far as the eye could see, and great care had to be used to avoid
running against them. South of the polar circle, he says it only occurs
in small numbers.[27] In August, 1880, Capt. Gray saw vast numbers
of these Whales about one hundred miles N.E. of Iceland; the sea, he
states, seemed to be quite full of them as far as he could see from the
mast-head. They were accompanied by a small species of “Finner,” with a
white band across the fin (_B. rostrata_).
The total length of the animal is about 45 to 50 feet, its baleen is
black, and the flippers, which are white and notched at the edge, from
10 to 14 feet in length.
THE COMMON RORQUAL.
To the genus _Balænoptera_ belong the Rorquals or Fin-whales, the
first species of which is the COMMON RORQUAL, _Balænoptera musculus_
(Linn.), the _Balænoptera boops_ of Bell’s first edition, and _Physalus
antiquorum_ of Gray. This is a much more active animal than the
Right-whale; it is difficult of approach, and, upon being harpooned,
such is the velocity with which it shoots through the water that the
danger is very great; Scoresby mentions one which took out 480 fathoms
of line in about one minute. In addition to this, the whalebone is
short and of little value, and the yield of oil small; it is therefore
avoided by the whalers, as more dangerous than profitable, and if
struck at all, it is most likely a case of mistaken identity. From
the port of Vadsö, however, the capture of this, and the species
immediately preceding and following, is now successfully effected by
means of an explosive shell or harpoon, which kills them at once. This
fishery was established about the year 1865, by Herr Svend Foyn, from
Tonsberg, and is still very successfully prosecuted, as many as 50
Whales being obtained each summer; they are towed into Vadsö, where the
blubber is refined and the carcase made into manure.
[Illustration: Fig. 14. COMMON RORQUAL (_Balænoptera musculus_, Linn.)]
The habitat of the Common Rorqual is the temperate Northern seas,
from the Mediterranean, which it sometimes enters, to the 70° north
latitude, and sometimes even farther north still. Nordenskiöld, in the
‘Œolus,’ last saw Finners on the 18th May, 1861, in lat. 75° 45′, the
temperature of the water being between 2·50° and 3·8° C., and they were
not again seen until the return of the expedition in September, in 78°
north latitude, the temperature of the water being then about 3·8° C.
He remarks, “It is probable that ‘Finners’ never live in colder water
than this, and that the northern limit of their distribution coincides
with sea of this temperature. It has to be kept in view, however, that
this boundary line lies several degrees further to the north in summer
than in winter.”[28]
The range of this group is very great, and, according to Andrew
Murray, it would appear that one or more of the Balænopteridæ is
found over the whole world, although it is by no means certain that
any particular species has a very wide geographical range. _Megaptera
longimana_, which occurs in the North Sea, was also supposed to have
been met with at the Cape, but Dr. Gray has pointed out differences
in the cervical vertebræ of an individual from that locality, which
he considers constitute distinct specific characters; on the other
hand, a Fin-whale from Java so closely resembles our _Balænoptera
laticeps_ that Professor Flower, after the most careful examination and
comparison almost bone by bone, hesitates to pronounce it distinct,
and only separates it provisionally. In our own seas this species is
of frequent occurrence, more especially on the Scotch coast, where
it appears in the early autumn, attracted by the shoals of herring
which abound there at that season. In feeding, the Rorquals are not
so restricted to minute marine animals as the Right-Whale, but devour
large quantities of fish of various sizes, from herrings up to cod. In
the stomach of the Newcastle Humpbacked Whale (the species mentioned
immediately before the present one) were found six cormorants, but a
seventh, found in its throat, was supposed to have caused its death by
choking it. The blowing is accompanied by a loud noise, which, on a
still night, may be heard at a considerable distance. It was formerly
supposed that in “blowing” the Whale ejected from its nostrils a very
considerable quantity of water, which might be seen to spout up into
the air like a fountain; and in the performance of this remarkable feat
they were generally depicted. Beale, however, in his ‘Natural History
of the Sperm Whale,’ as early as 1838, showed that this is not the
case, and the truth of his observations is now generally acknowledged.
The power so to eject water taken into its capacious mouth is, of
course, impossible, the blow-hole being in direct communication with
the lungs, and not with the cavity of the mouth, nor would it be of
any service to the Whalebone-Whales, as the very purpose of the baleen
is to form a screening apparatus through which the water is ejected,
leaving its minute prey behind; and in the toothed Whales it would not
be required. What appears like a jet of water is, in reality, dense
vapour--in fact, the breath issuing from the lungs of the animal,
highly charged with moisture, which becomes condensed upon exposure
to the atmosphere. It often happens, too, that the Whale lets off the
imprisoned air just before the blow-hole reaches the surface of the
water, or that a wave passes over it at the moment of respiration,
the water is thus dashed aside by the blast, and, probably, some of it
really carried up into the air, thus heightening the deceptive effect.
This species, when adult, reaches the length of about 70 feet, the
upper part is black, the throat and belly white and plaited, the
flippers black. The baleen is short and slate colour, veined with
streaks of darker shade, but growing lighter towards the inner edge.
Dead Whales, when stranded on the shore, after floating long at sea,
are generally greatly distended with gas, which generates rapidly
in the tissues after decomposition has set in; in such an inflated
condition only a very imperfect conception can be formed of the true
proportions of the vast beast. There is frequently, also, a great
protrusion of membrane from the mouth, arising from the same cause, and
other appearances in the male animal, due to the pressure of gas in the
abdominal cavity are generally faithfully portrayed in old books of
Natural History.
A Whale of this species, taken off the North coast of Scotland, in
April, 1880, was purchased by an enterprising individual in Birmingham,
to which town it was conveyed by rail, and there exhibited: probably,
this was the greatest distance from the sea at which an entire
Cetacean, 63 feet in length, had ever been seen.
The figure of this species is copied, by kind permission of Professor
Flower, from the illustration to his paper in the ‘Proceedings of the
Zoological Society of London’ for 1869, p. 604, _et. seq._
SIBBALD’S RORQUAL.
SIBBALD’S RORQUAL (_Balænoptera sibbaldii_, J. E. Gray; also
_Sibbaldius borealis_, Gray, and _Physalus latirostris_, Flower), has
several times been met with in British waters, particularly on the
east coast of Scotland. It is the largest of this gigantic family,
measuring from 80 to perhaps 100 feet in length. One seen by Herr Foyn
he estimated at the enormous length of 133 English feet! The famous
“Ostend Whale,” which was found floating dead in the North Sea, in
1827, and taken into Ostend, belonged to this species; its skeleton
was long exhibited in this country, and afterwards in America. Dr.
Gray says it is now in St. Petersburg, and gives the total length
as 102 feet; as, however, several of the vertebræ are missing, the
exact length is uncertain. Professor Turner gives the length of a
specimen stranded in the Firth of Forth as 78 feet 9 inches, and the
girth behind the flippers about 45 feet: this animal was gravid, but
notwithstanding this fact, the bulk must have been enormous.
Herr Rt. Collett, in his ‘Norges Pattedyrfauna,’ gives a very full
account of this species, as observed by him on the Norwegian coast.
In June, 1874, he had the opportunity of visiting Herr Svend Foyn’s
establishment for whale-catching, at Vadsö, and in addition to being
enabled to examine three individuals of this species in a fresh state,
received much information as to their habits from Herr Foyn and the men
engaged in the fishery. This Whale, from its colour, is known by the
fishers as the “Blue Whale,” and appears to have its home in winter
in the open seas, between the North Cape and Spitsbergen. By the end
of April or beginning of May it approaches the coast, entering the
larger Fjords towards the end of the latter month, to feast upon the
enormous quantities of _Thysanopoda inermis_, then found there; it is
also seen in summer along the coast from Loffoden to the North Cape,
and further to the eastward. When the wind is on the land or in any
stormy weather, it seeks the open sea. Varanger Fjord is the favourite
hunting-ground for this species, and in the last few years the average
number taken there has been thirty; in 1874, as many as 42 were taken:
it leaves the Fjord, however, should stormy weather set in. No specimen
examined by Herr Collett, or Professor Sars, had taken any other food
than _Thysanopoda inermis_, and Herr Foyn and his catchers are all of
opinion that they do not eat fish. To obtain the little Crustacean on
which they feed and which is found congregated in separate masses,
the Whale passes backwards and forwards with its mouth open, till
the cavity is well filled, it then closes its capacious jaws upon
the contents. Herr Collett found two or three barrels of these small
crustaceans in the stomach of a Blue Whale which he examined, and was
told that a large one would consume as much as ten barrels.
The female appears, as a rule, to be longer than the male; the young
are born about the autumn, one appears to be the usual number, but two
young ones have more than once been seen with the same old female.
This species may be known by its low dorsal fin, black baleen, and long
flippers, which are black above and whitish below: this should be borne
in mind, as it is not at all improbable that some, at least, of the
enormous cetaceans which are occasionally reported from the North of
Scotland, belong to this species; so very unsatisfactory, however, are
the reports which appear in print, that it is rarely a single feature
is mentioned by which the species may be determined.
RUDOLPHI’S RORQUAL.
RUDOLPHI’S RORQUAL (_Balænoptera laticeps_, J. E. Gray) is a small
species which may readily be mistaken for the Lesser Rorqual. A Whale
stranded at Charmouth in February, 1840, and described by Mr. Yarrell,
under the name of _Balænoptera boops_, in the proceedings of the
Zoological Society for that year, is believed to have been of this
species, but the skeleton, although prepared at the time, is supposed
to have been sold and converted into manure. The same individual is
recorded under the name of _B. tenuirostris_, in the Mag. of Nat.
History, iv., 1840, p. 342, by Mr. R. H. Sweeting. Very little is known
about the history or distribution of this species; the flippers are
entirely black above, wanting the white band found in the next species,
and the baleen is believed to be black.
LESSER RORQUAL.
The next and last of the Whalebone-Whales which we know to have
occurred in the British Seas is the LESSER RORQUAL (_Balænoptera
rostrata_, Fab.; _Rorqualus minor_, Knox), (Fig. 15). Many individuals
of this species have been obtained on various parts of the coast,
from Cornwall to the North of Scotland. On the coast of Norway it is
frequently met with, and is there called the “Bay-Whale,” from its
habit of entering bays and estuaries; this habit the natives take
advantage of for its destruction. Stretching a strong net across the
inlet, they cut off its escape, and put a cruel and often protracted
end to its existence with harpoons and arrows, the poor Whale sometimes
lingering from eight to fourteen days. This species is also known as
the “Summer-Whale,” and does not appear to be so strictly a northern
species as the Balænopteridæ generally are: it is believed, like the
Common Rorqual, to have been taken in the Mediterranean. A Whale of
this species, taken at Mevagissey, in Cornwall, at the end of April,
1880, was conveyed to London, and there exhibited in the Old Kent Road.
The Lesser Rorqual, from its small size (not exceeding 30 feet), is
not liable to be mistaken for any other species except the preceding
(Rudolphi’s Rorqual), and from that it may be distinguished by the
broad white band across its black flipper; the baleen also is nearly
white, which is another good distinction. The figure of this species
is copied from the illustration to an article by Messrs. Carte
and Macalister, on the Anatomy of _Balænoptera rostrata_, in the
‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society for 1868, vol. clviii.
[Illustration: Fig. 15. LESSER RORQUAL (_Balænoptera rostrata_, Fab.)]