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180
APPENDICES.
**
In a note marked "A," dealing with this foetus, a sketch is given of the genitals of the dam, No. 39. The foetus, enveloped in the "amnion," was lying in the left cornu with its head towards the vagina. The "amnion was confined to the left cornu, but the chorion, about 21 ft. long, extended far into, but not to the end of, the right cornu; a small portion of the chorion also projected into the corpus uteri. The fœtus was not attached to the dam, though villi were found. The left cornu was about 15 ft. long; it was connected with its ovary by a Fallopian tube 3 ft. long; the ovary had a large corpus luteum. The right cornu was about 12 ft. long; its ovary 'small, but showed a small corpus luteum or scar very distinct from the true corpus luteum of impregnation, and much more insignificant.
was
"NOTE. Both ovaries functional here." This note, which I had overlooked previously, thus affords definite evidence of the suggestion made at p. 124 when discussing twinning and superfotation in the finner.
end."
(4) Female fœtus, 5 ft. 8 in. long, found in No. 67.
Foetal bag 18 ft. to 20 ft., the umbilical cord attached at about 5 ft. from one
(5) Female fœtus 7 ft. long, found in No. 278, had a beard of 30 hairs arranged in four irregular rows.
Judging from Sir William Turner's observations on the placenta of Orca gladi- ator (Transactions, Royal Society, Edinburgh, XXVI, 470, and Balfour, "Compara- tive Embryology," volume II., p. 255), the membranes observed by Major Barrett-Hamilton may be susceptible of a different interpretation than the one he put upon them in the field. The relatively small sac into the walls of which the umbilical vessels and the urachus appeared to pass, and which in No. 39 was restricted to the left cornu with the foetus, would appear to be the allantois and not the amnion. In Orca the amnion is very large, closely applied to, or apparently coalesced with, the chorion; this seems to me to be the layer which Major Barrett- Hamilton was "doubtfully able to separate" from the chorion in No. 15, and which he regarded as the allantois.
Mr. J. E. Hamilton tells me that in the finners which he examined at Bel- mullet the foetal bag was always filled with a pale yellow fluid, resembling urine in appearance, and having a strong odour, recalling that of rotten eggs; he also observed the dirty brown fluid in which the foetal sac was bathed, and this fluid he regarded as being simply extravasated and partially decomposed blood.
APPENDIX II.
KNÖLHVALEN, BY SIGURD RIsting (Nomex FISKERITIDENDE NOVEMBER, 1912; 11 Hefte, pp. 437-449). TRANSLATION BY MARTIN A. C. HENTON, THE "Knölhval" is the whale which for some years has had, and continues to
It have, the greatest economic significance for the Norwegian whaling industry. appears to have been first exhaustively described and figured by Professor Sars in
1880.
It is most unlike the elegant fin whales which, together with it, people the whaling grounds and form the prey of the whalers. Its length is 12-14 metres, but it sometimes attains a far more considerable size, growing to 16-17 metres, or even somewhat more. Thus, four humpbacks whose lengths were given as about 18 metres were caught at the whaling station in Onundafjärd, Iceland, in May and June, 1898. At our southern stations a number of examples of this size are also taken, and similarly the girth, in consequence of the great fatness of the animal, can become disproportionately great.
Its name (Knölhval) has been acquired among our whalers in consequence of the conspicuous bosses or protuberances which occur in great number on the head and flippers. The fippers themselves are extraordinarily long, on which account the Knölhval was formerly sometimes called the long-handed whale." In Danish technical literature it is mentioned under the name of "Pukkelhval," and the Americans call it "humpback."
The colour of the animal is very variable. Even in individuals of similar age and sex the colour can vary considerably. This variability of colour is especially conspicuous on our southern whaling grounds, where, an a given ground, a com- plete invasion of individuals typically different from those which peopled the ground a few days before can suddenly happen. However, as a rule the upperside
APPENDICES.
181
is brownish black or black, while the underside can vary from white to mottled, or, indeed, be even quite dark. On the underside spots, splashes, or marblings of white on the quite dark ground colour may occur. Individuals with quite dark undersides are also not infrequent. On the ground at South Georgia whole inva- sions of such individuals can happen thus suddenly. The colour variations are apparently not dependent upon differences of age.
The baleen is greyish-black, the anterior plates usually somewhat mottled with white.
The humpback lives for the most part upon plankton, but it is also found with herrings or capelan in the stomach. It is obvious that it prefers plankton, although examples are known whose stomachs contain herringe in spite of a rich occurrence of plankton. Individuals with quite empty stomachs have been found in spite of a rich occurrence of capelan. It is, moreover, not fastidious. One finds occa- sionally the most different kinds of fish in its stomach. Thus, a whaling expedi- tion to eastern Asia found both whiting, cod, and salmon. When food is abundant it can swallow huge masses, 8-10 hks can be present in the ventricles at one time. But it can also go long without food, sines it during migrations often comes to ocean currents where there is great dearth of food. Therefore its condition at our whaling grounds is very variable, and the animal's value, depending upon the amount of blubber present, is therefore most variable.
It undertakes great and extensive migrations, and its conrse appears to be more 'regular and more constant than that of any of the other large Cetacea. Therefore, if the whalers have found a station from which it can be hunted on its course it is easier to shoot down and exterminate than any of the other species. It has therefore shown itself that it usually is the first species to be thinned out upon a particular field. This is the same phenomenon which we to-day have occa- sion to observe, especially at South Georgia and South Shetland.
Since whaling began in the South Sea one has, on the whole, acquired a better notion of the migrations of the whales and of their whole course of life besides; this is especially the case with regard to the humpback, and one can mention as the cardinal rule that the humpback's migrations, both north and south of the Equator, are divisible into a feeding-migration towards the polar regions, and a breeding- migration towards the warmer seas.
On the coast of northern Norway its course and occurrences have been specially investigated and made known from whaler Morten Ingebrigtsen's observations and journals.
From these it appears that the humpback migrates westwards along the Fin- mark coast in the months of February and March. It comes there from the east sea, in the open parts of which it must have passed the winter.
Whaling was pursued for many vears on the Finmark coast without know- ledge of this humpback movement. The whalers arrived in the north only after this migration had happened. The whales they sought were partly pure plankton- eating species, which first appeared in the early summer, and partly fin whales, which usually did not occur in the late spring months, but appeared first with the arrival of the capelan. When one in the meantime had discovered this migration many humpbacks were shot while on this course during a series of years.
The humpbacks sometimes occurred in quite large numbers on the coast of Fin- mark. Thus it is recorded of 1873-consequently before the commencement of the humpback fishery--that on a day in February it suddenly appeared in thousands in the Varangerfjörd. The swarms were, according to report, so dense that they impeded the motion of the steamships. In March, 1881, and in March, 1886, many humpbacks again appeared in the Varangerfjörd.
The humpback is at this season not out in order to seek food, and it moves away therefore with great speed, at the same time keeping close to the land. While on this journey it can sometimes come so close to the more prominent points on the coast that it scarcely clears the bottom. It is a generally distributed opinion among the whalers that it intentionally scrubs against the rocks in order to free itself of the many large parasites which infest it.
It must have been sparing of the winter food, for the stomach was empty in the whales which were caught at this time. The females have, on the other hand, large fartuses which are almost ready to be born. The object of this migration must therefore clearly be to seek warmer seas where the young can be born. Only exceptionally are the young born in our northern seas.