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APPENDICES,
At Finmark, judging from Cocks's records, during the summer fishery, i.e., during the feeding-migration, males were more than twice as numerous as females, and this applies not only to mature but to immature animals as well. A still greater preponderance of males appears from the records from British waters; bearing in mind what has been said above as to the course pursued by the humpbacks on their feeding-migration this may be due in part to the fact that only a flank of the return- As noticed above (under “Size") ing host touches our shores during the summer. the bulls taken in British waters are of large size, while the females are mostly small catches a8 and young.
I am inclined to regard all such peculiarities in the merely the expressions of purely local and seasonal differences in the composition of the migrating herds.
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Turning now to the humpbacks of the South Atlantic. Their migration each year to and from South Georgia is a well-established fact; the first comers appear there in October, the largest herds used to arrive in November and remained during December and January; subsequently they begin to leave, and by the middle of May all have vanished. From Major Barrett-Hamilton's list it would appear that between the middle of November and the middle of January females are nearly twice as numerous as males at South Georgia; at the South Shetlands, on the other hand, Mörch found that bulls were in a decided majority, that the individuals observed in February and March were mostly young, and that the white, marble-, and black-bellied varieties, which at South Georgia appeared in succession in dis- tinct "schools," no longer kept distinct but mingled. Of 19 immature humpbacks examined by Major Barrett-Hamilton at South Georgia, 2 were caught in Novem- ber (15th, 18th), 4 in December (3rd to 28th), and 13 in January (5th to 16th).
In the paper cited Mörch said:-" During the months May to October especi- ally, the humpback whales have been observed in great numbers and mostly off the coast of Portuguese West Africa. I think the question may reasonably be raised whether we have not here the great bulk of the humpbacks from the South Georgia region on their annual migratory route?"
In a letter from the British Museum (Natural History) to the Colonial Office, dated 27th October, 1011.* it is said that:-" It is by no means improbable that the schools of humpbacks which visit the South African coast during a certain part of the year may be identical with those which are found off South Georgia at other times."
Collett (Norges Pattedyr, Christiania, 1912, p. 607) says:-
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The bulk of these southern humpbacks appear during the summer months (December to March) at a larger or smaller number of great feeding places in the south polar sea, in order to feed on the plentiful plankton-food which at this time of the year develops in the neighbourhood of the ice. Thence in the spring (July to September) they undertake extensive breeding- migrations towards the north, along the South American and African coasts to the warmer regions of the ocean near the Equator; everywhere at present they are the object of an intense whaling "
"Other tribes of southern humpbacks wander about between the south polar sea and the South Sea islands, and can press up towards the Indian Ocean or around Australia.”
With regard to the words which I have underlined (in italics) in the first para- graph quoted above it must be remarked, in passing, that Collett's word “Ynglevand- ringer." which is rendered above as “breeding-migrations," means literally "migra- tions for parturition " and not "for pairing": the same word, similarly rendered The statement that the by me in my translation, is used by Risting in his paper. breeding-migration from the south polar sea takes place in the spring months (July to September) is an error into which, I think. Professor Collett was led by suppos- ing the southern humpbacks to winter in sub-polar waters and thus to afford a com- plete parallel to the seasonal distribution of their northern representatives.
A very full account of the migrations of the southern humpbacks has been given
by Risting: in his paper, of which a full translation is appended, he says:—
"With the approach of the Antarctic spring great quantities of whale- food
sprout' un along the south polar ice-edge, and this food is carried by the currents towards the consts of the great south polar island groups.
* No. 1 in Miscellaneous No. 278.
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ance.
APPENDICES.
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From November and onwards nature has consequently spread a rich table to which the plankton-eating whales can proceed and find food in all luxuri- In greatest numbers the humpback puts in an appearance. It is at this season lean, but later, as the southern summer advances, and it can feed without stint on its natural food kril,' it becomes rapidly fatter and fatter. and from February to April it acquires a layer of blubber so thick that one can very seldom find the like on the northern whaling grounds.
When the autumn arrives in this southern region and the animal life of the upper strata of water gradually decreases, the humpback proceeds northwards in order to seek warmer water where the young can be born and where the pairing can happen.
The female humpbacks which are caught in the summer on the hunt- ing grounds at South Georgia and South Shetland are nearly all pregnant, although the size of the foetuses varies in different individuals.
"When the humpback now wanders northwards it proceeds towards the great continents, and it is found already from the middle of May-indeed occasionally still earlier-moving northwards along the coasts of South America and Africa. The progress is definitely a northward one, and the whale is now extremely fat.
"The migration does not commence at exactly the same time in each year, but the difference is not very great. In 1911, for example, at Consul Johann Bryde's station at South Africa, the first humpback was obtained on 15th May, while in 1912, by the 12th May, one hundred whales had already been caught. A large number of these, however, were seihval.
"This migration from the south lasts till the end of July, and the whale goes apparently quite northwards of the equatorial region." The 'Dominion Whaling Company of Sandefjörd,' which has its station on the coast of West Africa just south of the Equator, has thus found there a very good stock of fat migrating whales.
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"Towards the end of August the southward migration along the same The pregnant females coasts begins. The whale is now noticeably leaner. have cast their young and the animals have paired..
"The southward migration along the coasts of Africa and South America lasts until far into November. The whale is at last relatively lean, and steers now rapidly southwards. Because down there in the setting cur- rents round the Antarctic island groups and along the edge of the southern ice the commencing summer has again called forth a swarming life in the surface water and the rich table of nature is again spread for the whale 'schools.' Confirmation of some of Risting's statements is to be found in certain of the official documents before me.* The memorandumt on the floating whale factory, 'Benguela," shows that that vessel fished in Tiger Bay, Portuguese Angola, in 1912, during a season which began not earlier than May and ended not later than November; that she made a large catch which consisted almost entirely of humpbacks. The Colonial Office is in possession of memoranda which show that there are several whaling stations on the west coast of Africa, and that a Norwegian company operating as far north as Cape Lopez, in the French Congo, took about 600 "whales" in 1912. In this connexion, mention may be made here of a map published in the Christiania newspaper. Tidens Tegn, of 10th May, 1913, which shows that in the season of 1913 no fewer than 17 Norwegian companies were operating on the West African coast; of these 17, 6 were established in the French Congo, 7 in Portuguese West Africa, 2 in German South-west Africa, and 2 on the west coast of British South Africa.
I have been shown a confidential communication from the Admiralty to the Foreign Office, which contains a report to the Admiralty made on 1st December, 1912 by the Senior Naval Officer on the west coast of Africa. Lieutenant F. E. K. Strong, of H.M. ship "Dwarf," stationed at St. Paul de Loanda. In this report
* See also. Olsen, Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1913, vol. ii., p. 1089.
In 1910 humpbacks were
abundant at Saldanha Bay after 30th May. For notes from a recent paper by Olsen sle Appendix III. (p. 185.)
No. 17 in Miscellaneous No. 278.
No. 188 in Miscellaneous No. 278.