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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

mminumin C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC={ COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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(2) ESCHRICHT, D. F., REINHARDT, J., and LILLJEBORG, W.-" Recent Memoirs on the

Cetacea," edited by W. H. Flower. London, Ray Society, 1866.

(3) SOUTHWELL, T.-" The Migration of the Right Whale (Balæna mysticetus)."

Natural Science, xii., 1898, p. 397.

The

(4) SOUTHWELL, T.- "Notes on the Arctic Whaling Voyage of 1905."

Zoologist (4) x., No. 776, 1906, p. 41. (5) STARBUCK, A.-" History of the American Whale Fishery from its earliest inception to the year 1876." U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, Pt. 4. Report of the Commissioner for 1875-1876, Washington, 1878. Appendix A., pp. 1-768.

(6) SCORESBY, W.-" An Account of the Arctic Regions," Vol. II. Edinburgh,

1820.

(7) BURFIELD, S. T.-" Belmullet Whaling Station." Report of the Committee.

British Association Reports (Dundee Meeting, 1912), pp. 145-

186.

(8) BURFIELD, S. T.-" Belmullet Whaling Station."

Report

+

British

Association Reports (Portsmouth Meeting, 1911), pp. 121-126. (9) Collett, R.-" Norges Pattedyr." Kristiania, 1912, pp. 543- (10) PATON, A. W., and MILLAR, A. H.-" Handbook and Guide to Dundee and

District." British Association, Dundee, 1912.

(11) BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES. Annual Report on Sea Fisheries for

the year 1912. Part I. Report (1913).

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.

(1) R. C. MURPHY,* August 12, 1913, to C. E. FAGAN (British Museum (Natural History)).

Mr. Murphy has recently returned from South Georgia, where he spent four "The months during the summer 1912-1913, and saw a good deal of the north coast. extirpation of animal life was everywhere apparent, the principal sufferers being, of course, the whales, sea elephants, and penguins, not to include the fur seals, of which I saw no trace, although an American sealer is said to have slaughtered between three and four hundred in 1907."

"The numbers of whales on the banks are astounding, but as single steamers sometimes come into port with ten carcases in one day, the abundance of the various species cannot long continue." One of the Norwegian Secretaries of the Compania Argentina de Pesca has computed that within six years from December, 1912, whaling will be unprofitable in South Georgia if the present carnage continues.

The whales may recover when whaling stops, but the last sea elephant can be "the hunted profitably. The Norwegians are inclined to respect the law, but captains of antiquated wind-jammers from New Bedford or South American ports are still more to be feared."

Mr. Murphy saw wholesale killing during the close season, as well as the destruction of more than a thousand female and " pup "seals (apparently elephant seals). Most of the females examined had not been impregnated. The killing of adult males may thus be bad policy. It is important to ascertain how far the elephant seal is polygamous, and how far they travel from land. Sealers say they go many hundreds of miles.

Penguins have greatly decreased. Pygoscelis papua and Aptenodytes nested in thousands at the Bay of Isles in 1908. The king penguins have now been reduced to two small rookeries of perhaps 250 pairs.

"Absolute protection for the sea elephants and king penguins, and confiscation of poachers is what is needed."

་་

The American

[See also a published article on the same subject by Mr. R. C. Murphy: (Curator, Division of Mammals and Birds, Brooklyn Museum, N.Y.), in Museum Journal,” xiii., No. 6, Oct., 1913, pp. 243-

.]

• Curator, Division of Mammals and Birds, Brooklyn Museum, New York.-Cf. p. 7.

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(2) F. A. LUCAS (Director of the American Museum of Natural History, New York). Oct. 16, 1913, to C. E. FAGAN.

Alludes to the "practical extermination "of the Right Whale in the North Atlantic and the diminution of the "Bowhead " (Balana mysticetus) in the Arctic. The collapse of the Newfoundland whaling industry indicates that whales are some. Another fact of what local, and that we do not have the whole ocean to draw on. importance is the larger size of Blue Whales in Northern Europe than off Newfound- land. Those of South Georgia are still larger. The Blue Whale occurs, or occurred, on the south shore of Newfoundland, but only exceptionally on the east coast.

These facts indicate that certain whales are confined to comparatively limited

areas.

WHALING IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

This subject has received but little attention in this memorandum, as the most recent information is believed to be already in the possession of the Colonial Office.

The following work has been submitted for inspection by the Colonial Office, as it contains some information with regard to the southern Right Whale, a species which has clearly decreased greatly in numbers since it began to be hunted :-

BULL, H. J.—" The Cruise of the Antarctic' to the South Polar Regions."

London and New York (Edward Arnold), 1896.

The information about Right Whales is contained principally in chap. xii. did not see a single (pp. 214-

), and it is specially noted that the "Antarctic" Right Whale during the journey from Campbell Island to South Victoria Land and back.

References are given to Sir James Ross, whose experiences in the same waters had been very different. In the course of the voyage to Victoria Land, near the point where the Antarctic Circle was crossed, Sir James Ross's expedition had encountered Right Whales in large numbers. The following statement occurs on p. 169 of Vol. I. of the work cited below (foot-note) :-

"A great many whales were seen, chiefly of the common black kind, greatly resembling, but said to be distinct from, the Greenland whale; sperm, as well as hunchbacked whales, were also observed; of the common black species we might have killed any number we pleased."

On pp. 65, 66 of the same volume, an account given by Captain Robert Rhodes

of a survey of Kerguelen Island, in March, 1799, is quoted

"We perceived the right or black whale to set into the different bays and harbours in great quantities. Our success was commensurate to my most sanguine expectations."

"

Whale Bay in Kerguelen was so named from the great numbers of whales that frequent the place at a certain season of the year" (p. 68:-kind of whale not stated, but presumably the right or black whale mentioned two pages earlier).

On returning to the Cape of Good Hope, in 1843, the members of the expedition were informed that whales were still found in great numbers off Kerguelen, so that there were between 500 and 600 whale ships fishing along the shores or in the imme- diate neighbourhood. Most of the vessels were American (pp. 88, 89: here again the species of whale is not indicated; and some at least of the vessels were probably the sea elephant and catching Sperm Whales). On p. 88 it is pointed out that several species of seals were formerly in great abundance, and annually drew a number of vessels to these shores (Kerguelen) in pursuit of them. They have now, after so many years of persecution, quite deserted the place, or have been most com- pletely annihilated."t

The Journal of the Royal Society of Arts for March 29th, 1912 (Vol. LX., "The Whaling p. 515), contains an account of a lecture, by T. E. Salvesen, on Industry of to-day."

11

»

Nature (Vol. LXXXIX., April 18, 1912, p. 173), in commenting on this lecture, draws attention to the fact that about 17,500 whales had been taken south Ross, Sir James Clark.-" A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the southern and Antarctic regions, during the years 1839-43." Vols. I. and II., London, 1847. [It has been ascertained that this is the work referred to.]

+ Other references to the abundance of whales in southern waters quoted by H. J. Ball will be found in the following places in Ross's original work. Vol. I., pp. 191, 195, 244, 260, 265–266 ; Vol. II., pp. 146-7, 196, 208.