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7 May 1914.]

WHALING COMMITTEE:

Dr. JOHAN HJORT.

The knowledge which scientific men to-day have about the distribution of whales is almost entirely due to the experience of the whalers themselves. The whalers through hundreds of years have gone all over the world, first from Northern Europe and then from the United States, and a great amount of experience has been collected by all the hundreds or thousands of expeditions which have been made in this way, The United States Fisheries Commission has tried to collect a large amount of information, which is published in the great volumes on the fisheries and fish industries of the United States. There we find a very interesting map of the world showing all the "whaling grounds." which I should like very much to draw your attention to. The Committee may be very well acquainted with this well-known map, but I should like to draw your attention to it. I have reproduced it myself in a book which I published in 1902, "Fishing and Whaling in Northern Norway." If you look at this map (exhibiting the same to the Committee) it gives the then (1887) existing and abandoned whaling grounds, and you will find the different species of whales in the different grounds indicated by special letters. You will very quickly see that there is a very interesting difference in the distribution of the various species. I have tried myself to explain the distribution of the different species in a work, The Depths of the Ocean," which I have written together with Sir John Murray, and may I ask you kindly to permit me to say a few words about the main results which are contained in this book P The first striking fact is this, that in the great open oceans of the whole world you find almost only one kind of large whale, especially in the warmer parts of the oceans, that is the well-known cachalot which belongs to the tooth-whales. All whalebone whales are either distributed in the north or south, in the Arctic or Antarctic, or along the coasts, for instance, along the coasts of South Africa, South America, and so on. This very striking and characteristic distribution may. according to my view, be explained on the basis of all the results which scientific expeditions have given us in the last 40 years. The study of the pelagic animals, and especially the studies which have been made in the last 20 years, have shown that in the warm ocean far away from land, where the water is quite warm, there is very little of what we call plankton, or pelagic animals. It is so little that if you tow a silk net for hours you will find it is hardly possible to see the catch with your eyes. On the other hand, if you tow a silk net, for instance, between Spitzbergen and Iceland or Norway in the summer time you will in a few minutes have collected kilos of small animals This has led to the opinion that the open oceans are compara. tively poor in pelagic life. This is, however, not quite the case. If you tow in the surface you get compara. tively little, but in greater depths you find quantities of pelagic animals. I made many such experiments myself on the expedition which I had with Sir John Murray four years ago.

We then found that a great number of pelagic animals lived below 200 or 300 metres, and there we found great quantities of them. In a short time immense numbers of small crustaceans, large shrimps, big cephalopods, and so on, may be taken in a tow net. It is very interesting to compare this bathymetric distribution of animals with the tempera- tures. I have here a section of the Atlantic from latitude S. 4 deg. to latitude N. 60 deg.

You see this is a length section of the whole Atlantic. In the tropics the really warm water above 15 deg. centigrade. or 10 deg. centigrade even, is only a very thin layer of about 200 to 300 metres depth. Below this warm layer you find the temperatures which are peculiar to the surface north and south. Now the cachalot, which has teeth and has the most astonishing power of diving, can go straight down to some hundred fathoms and catch the big cephalopods in the deep, but no whale can live on the scanty animals of the surface of the tropics. I think this is a satisfactory explanation of why the cachalota are the only big whales in the open warm seas. Along the coast the plankton is sometimes much richer, and there you find small fishes -for instance, you find different herring species, and for this reason we have along the coast of South Africa

[Continued.

I

and South America a great number of whalebone whales which may sift the water and take the small fishes and the richer plankton which is there. We find, therefore, along the counts of Europe and South Africa, whales which partly live from what we call the plankton and partly from small fishes; but when you go up to the real Arctic or down to the Antarctic you find a third group of whales exclusively or almost exclusively living on plankton. The next important fact which we must remember when we wish to understand the distribution of whales is the following: If you go to the Arctic or to the Antarctic you will find you have not there, as you have in the warm open sea, the same conditions all the year through. If you sail in the Norwegian sea between Norway, Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen in winter time--which I have done several times- and you try to tow a large net for hours, you will catch almost nothing whatever. During the whole winter the uppermost 200 to 250 metres of water are almost absolutely destitute of pelagic life, but in April or May a very rich animal life grows up in a very short time. In June, for instance, you find nowhere in the whole world so much of this pelagic life as you find in Northern Norway and Spitzbergen. If you go to the Antarctic in October, and make the same experiments there, you find almost nothing of pelagic animal life. but in the month of November there grows up a similar immense plankton life, and that lasts during the Ant- arctic summer, that is to say, until the month of April or May. Then it disappears again, and you have a time when there is hardly any pelagic life. In order to understand the life of the whale you must realise that it is impossible for a whale to live from plankton if it cannot migrate extensively. A whale living on plankton has really to migrate over great distances of the world in order to exist. I am able to give you positive proofs that such migrations really do exist. allow myself to show you these two harpoons (sharing the same to the Committee) which I procured up in Fin- marken when I studied the whaling up there. Such a harpoon as this bas never in history been used by a Norwegian in Finmarken. They are shot out by small hand guns, while the Norwegians up in Finmarken use very heavy guns from ships, with big exploding shells. These two harpoons can with certainty be said to have been shot into the whales not nearer to Norway than North-Eastern America, off the United States, I believe. In the Antarctic we have got similar proofs of great migrations. I allow myself to show you another harpoon (exhibiting the same), which has been found in a whale at the South Shetlands, and a model of this kind has never been used down there. This model is used on the West Const of South America by the coast population. I cannot say for certain that this harpoon comes from South America, but I say that is the nearest place where such a harpoon is used. We have, therefore, exact proofs that the whales make very large migra. tions. In order to study these migrations it would, of course, have been the ideal thing to do, as we do in study. ing the fishes, to make marking experiments, but such When the experiments have never been tried yet. Norwegian Government ordered me to study the life of the whales in Northern Norway I tried to get another source of information, and I went to the whalers them- selves, and I asked them to give me log books, and I got some 40 logs from the whalers which I have treated in a book, which is published, I am sorry to say, only in Norwegian; but I have, in this book, fully dealt with the information obtained from these log books. If by means of those logs you study the occurrence of the different species of whales you very soon discover that the different species have a very different life history. We have first of all one group which feed on fish as well as on plankton, and in the Norwegian Sea and North European waters there are two species belonging to this group, viz.: Balaenoptera acutorostrata, and Balaen optera physalus. The last one is the common Fin whale. The two whales belong to the Norwegian coast waters almost the whole year, but within the Norwegian Ses When I say they migrate according to the seasons. that I know they make these migrations, I conclude that partly from what we see during the herring fisheries and partly from the logs of the whalers. This most

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.

Dr. JOHAN HJORT.

7 May 1914.]

important whale follows the herringe in the spring. in April and May, along the southern coast of Norway. When the great shoals of mail fish called capelan (Mallotus villosus) leave the ice and approach the north- ern coast of Norway, you can see, as I have seen my- self, hundreds of these whales approaching the coast together with the capolan, and accompanied by Aretio birds and Arctic seala. From Iceland we have the same experience that these whales follow the herrings; for instance, the presence of Fin whales on the north coast of Iceland, as shown by the whalers' logs, exactly coincides with the great herring fishery in August. These whales are comparatively local. They are not local to such an extent that they always live within a distance of 10, 20, 30, or 40 miles, but they are local in comparison with the next group, which live only from plankton, and which make great migrations. To this group of plankton whales (the second group belongs the species Balaenoptera musculus, formerly called Sibbaldii, the Blue whale, and the whale which we in Norway call the Seihral, or Balaenoptera borealis. They live entirely from plankton-from shrimps, as the fisher- men call them, small crustaceans, mostly of this size (indicating about one inch), which may be seen in enor- mous quantities in the summer time in the waters of Northern Norway. The appearance of these whales in our waters coincides exactly with the increasing abund. ance of the plankton. They are only caught by the whalers at that time. In all the logs which I have before me there is not one single instance of such n whale being caught before April or May, and they leave our northern waters in August and September, when the plankton in these northern latitudes begins to dia- appear. These harpoons were found in whales belong- ing to this group, viz., Blue whales. As we may con. clude from these harpoons, the whales go down to the other side of the Atlantic, the western side, where the Aretic winter begins later in the year, and in this way the whales may find their food during a much longer time of the year. In the Antarctic we have not yet so much experience as we have from Norway. I have not been able yet to get logs from the whalers, but I have been promised much information from all the whaling stations. I have had a great many interviews with the I whalers, especially the shots, as they call them. believe that what they have told me is reliable, because it corresponds so closely with the experience which I have got from Northern Norway, from my earlier in- vestigations there. For instance, they tell me that the Blue and Fin whales arrive in the end of October when the shrimps, as they call them, begin to develop, and during the month of November, when the shrimps are getting more and more plentiful, the whales increase in number, and they last till April or May, when the The Fin whale of the Antarctic autumn sets in. Antarctic may to some degree have a peculiar kind of distribution and migration, because the Antarctic na far as we know is destitute of such small fishes as abound in the Northern Hemisphere, where you have the herrings, the capelan, and all these kinds of species. We know for certain that the Fin whale may feed on plankton like the Blue whale, laut in northern latitudes it feeds mostly on small fish. Perhaps it is different in southern latitudes; that we do not know. We may then distinguish a third group of whales, the Hump- back whale. It feeds both on plankton and on fish, but it is not so local as the Fin whale: it makes very great migrations. Harpoons from North America have been found in Humpbacks caught in Northern Norway, but I have not been able to get them. In the Southern Hemisphere they must also make wide migrations. I can show you a harpoon from Sonth America taken in a Humpback at South Shetlands. In Northern Norway the Humpbacks were caught in two different seasons. They were always caught in February and March, and then they entirely disappeared from the Barentz Sea until the month of June. Then they came again and stayed along the coast of Norway until the end of Angust or September, and were shot then at the same time as the Blue whales. They wandered about in the Barentz Ses all summer and autumn, leaving as before stated in February or March. We have tried to explain the disappearance of these whales in February or March in

[Continued.

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this way, that they migrate to the North or Weat Atlantic in order to breed. I will give further informa. tion about this if you like when I come to the question of breeding. With regard to the Antarctic our ex perience is, of course, very limited. It is limited to the fields where the whalere now catch the whales, and if I may show this chart (laying the same before the Committee), you will see that the whaling industry in the Antarctic is confined to the South Shetlands, South Georgia, and South Orkneys, practically to this area here (pointing on the chart). We must, however, believe that the whales have a much wider distribution and it would be of great practical importance to know if the whales are distributed all round the South Pole. From all present experience we may conclude that in all the waters having the same temperatures and the same salinities, we will have the same animal life. That is, amongst many other things, proved by the great simi- larity between the Arctic and the Antarctic in this respect. Where in the Arotic and the Antarctic you find the same temperatures, you find also the same kind of pelagic life. You should therefore a priori be in- clined to believe that the same plankton life and the same whales will be distributed all round the South Pole; but, of course, it is much better if you can have positive evidence in the matter. We have some evidence of this kind which I wish to lay before you. One of the authors of the Reports on the Belgio Expedition has taken the great trouble to collect all the information which is contained in scientific reports about the occurrence of whales in the Antarctic, and in list which M. Racovitza gives in his book about the whales from the Antarctic he records all the observa- tions which he has been able to find in the literature from the very early days of Cook up to modern times. He gives the exact latitude and longitude for the occurrence of these whales. On this chart I have plotted all the localities where whales have been observed. You can see that whales have really, as one would anticipate, been observed in all longitudes all round the Antarctic Continent. These are the more general remarks which I can make in the short time at my disposal. There is such an immense literature on this subject that I could speak for days about it, but I will confine myself to these statements with regard to the first question or group of questions which you have laid before me.

735. Generally you have answered the first two, have you not P-Yes, I think so.

736. There are just one or two questions which I wanted to ask you. You referred to the general cessa- tion of pelagic life in the Arctic and Antarotic waters during winter, and to the fact that the whales disap- peared when the pelagic life ceased, and there was no plankton for them? Yes.

737. And therefore the fishing takes place only at certain times of the year in those regions!Of some whales.

738. Of the plankton and fish-eating whates, is not that so-The fish-eating whales mostly remain, but not the plankton whales.

73. The plankton whales disappear from those regions?--Yes.

740. I assume (I do not want to press these ques- tions now, because you have promised to give us further information) that these whales which disappear from the Antarctic or the Arotic must reappear somewhere else where they are feeding on plankton, which pre- sumably will be on these coastal regions. Would not that be so You.

741. So that presumably they will be subject to further attack on the coast region of South America and the African coast; would you agree that was the probability ?—I do believe myself that there is a great difference between the different species. I do, for instance, believe that the Blue whales, and perhaps the Fin whale, do not go to these continents, while the Humpback, I believe, go to these continents. is in accordance with what the whalers have told me, but with regard to the Antarctic I must allow myself to say once more, that our experience is up to the present very much smaller than it is with regard to the North European waters. First of all the whaling is

That

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

ICO. 885

23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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7 May 1914.]

WHALING COMMITTEE:

Dr. JOHAN HJORT.

very new down in the Autaretic, and very little ex- perience has therefore been collected yet; and science has not yet come into that co-operation with the whalers which is absolutely necessary for the advance. ment of knowledge about these things. The preliminary impression which I have corresponds with the informa tion I have got from the whalers. They have told me that on the way from Cape Verde down to South Georgia in this direction (printing on the chart)-in September they go mostly south-west-they see a great number of whales with young (1 will come to that later on) on this route here between 20 and 30 degrees south. I will show it on the map (indicating). It is pretty far off the South American coast; they see whales with young down here on the way.

742. (Mr. Darnley.) What kind of whales?-Blue whales.

743. (Chairman.) And Finners?-Ant Finners they have told me. The Humpback whales, the Megapters, are known to appear along the South American and South African coasts. This harpoon should also go as showing the migrations of these Humpbacks when they go up along the coast.

744. That harpoon having been found in a Hump- back whale-Yes.

745. What I had in mind was this the question whether at the end of the Antarctie fishing-the five or wix months of their being fished in the Antarctic-these whales other than the Humpbacks, that is to say, the Blue whales and the Finners were immune from attack, or whether they were still being hunted elsewhere?— As far as my information goes the Blue whales and Finners are not caught, but I believe personally that some of the Humpbacks are caught.

746. I think we have evidence already that the Humpbacks are caught at different periods of the year round these different coasts?-Yes, but, of course, that is a preliminary opinion.

747. (Mr. Darnley.) Do you know what reasons hinder the Blue whales and Finners from being pur- sued? Are they too far out at sea to be conveniently hunted, or too much scattered?-The whaling from South Georgia, for instance, is carried out mostly in this way: A boat goes out in the morning and comes back in the evening, or at the most in a few days. They do not make any great voyages. They say themselves that they mostly fish about 40 to 50 miles from the island, and they do not make big expeditions to the 20 and 30 degrees of latitude sonth. There is no whaling for Finners carried out in this part of the sea. believe myself, or it is likely in any case, that this migra tion is not a very quick one, but that it is more of a retirement; as the Antarctic autumn and winter begins to set in gradually, I believe those whales gradually move with the cooling water northwards.

I do

748. (Chairman. They simply move into the more As I should like to state temperate waters ?--Yes. further on. I believe in the case of some species that thie migration is connected with their breeding.

749. Would you think it probable that these whales spend the rest of the year (that is to say the period of the Antarctic winter) in the open ocean?-Yes.

750. They are bred in the open ocean-That is the only thing I can tell at present, but, of course, the only evidence which I have got is that the whalers have seen them going south, and that they are not catching them then.

751. I have one further question which I do not ask you to answer now, but I think it would be rather con. venient if you could give us a list of whales classified under your three groups-ould you do that? You put the whales into three groups?—Yes.

752. Could you mention the various whales in these groupe P-Yes.

753. I wonder whether you could let the Committee have the list of whales with which you deal put into your three groups, because we have here a classification of whales under different headings-I should be very pleased. I would put them into the shorthand notes if you wished.*

• Nee Question 734.

[Continued.

754. You might let us have the list separately P-I will furnish you with a list of the whales of the different biological groups.

B

735. Shall pass to the next question? I believe you wanted to say something briefly about the history of whaling, and you proposed to give us a memorandum on the historical aspect of the question afterwards →→→ With regard to all these big subjects. I do very much wish to be permitted to send to the Committee later on detailed memorandum in which I can give the evidence I have given to you with more detail and exact facts. The history of whaling is, as you know, such an immense chapter of the history of the world, that it would be quite impossible for me to give a review of this large and interesting subject now, but there are a few remarks which I should like to make. I group the history of whaling into three different chapters. The first one is the so-called Right whale fishing, the fishing of the genus Halaena, which, as you know, consists mostly of those two important species, Balaena mysticetus, the Greenland whale, and the Balaenn glacialis or bizcayensis, the North Caper, as it is called. These whales I have not mentioned before. The Greenland whale is the most Arctic whale known, living in the real Arctic amongst the ice-floes, and the Balaena biscayensis belongs to the Northern Atlantic. It was, especially in olden times, very common up between Spitzbergen and Northern Norway. That in why it was called the North Caper. This whaling is, as you know, the oldest of the whaling industries. It started in the eleventh century. Scoresby tells us in his charming book that in 1202 the Northern Warriors had feathers of whalebone on their helmets, and in the thir. teenth and fourteenth centuries whalebone was already an article of trade in England and France. In 1590 mer- chants from Hull sent ships to Iceland and the North Cape, and in 1616 an English company had already 14 ships which shot 150 whales. In the seven. teenth century this industry developed, as you know, immensely. In the 100 years from 1669 to 1769 Hol- land alone sent 14,167 ships to the Arctic whaling, and in the years 1733 to 1765 Great Britain paid no less than 1,300,0001. in premiums for developing and sup- porting the British whaling-English and Scotch. In the years 1810 to 1818, 824 ships went whaling from England; so late as in the beginning of the last cen- tury England sent 824 ships. That is to say, that this big whaling was, after 200 years of fishing, on a very high level, but from then it declined. From 1815 to 1834 there were yearly about 116 ships, in 1857 there were 60, and in 1868 there were 30. Scoresby has tried to make an estimate of how many whales were caught by the Dutch alone in the 100 years or 90 years from 1669 to 1778, and he comes to the Fonclusion that 57,590 whales were caught. For the understanding of the whaling industry it is very important to state the following farte: This big industry started, or had ite first great period, at Spitzbergen. In the beginning they had a trade in bay fishing; they fished in the fjords and bays of Spitzbergen, but this fishing declined entirely. Then they started fishing along the ice, the so-called ice fishing. The ice in the winter is off the coast of Spitzbergen, and runs down to Jan Mayen and along to the Denmark Straits. The fishing started Then along the ice when the bay fishing was over. they discovered the Jan Mayen fishing, and at last they went into the Davis Straits fishing and the Bathins Bay fishing, and the important thing is that the decrease in the whaling was always local. I do not wish at present to say more on this very big and interesting subject. Another very great whaling industry was As I told you in the the Sperm whale fishing. beginning the Sperm whales are living mostly in the open sea in the warm waters. They are Oceanic warm water animals. This great industry started, s you know, from the Eastern United States, from Nan- tucket. The first whale was shot in 1715, and in 1770 the United States had already 125 ship. In 1788 Enderby of London sent their ship Amelia round Cape Horn, and then they started the Pacific fishing. In 1837 the whole industry was at its height; the total catch amounted then to the value of about 1,000,0001. In 1842 824 ships where whaling all over the world.

7 May 1914.]

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.

Dr. JOHAN HJORT.

756. For Sperm whales P-Yea, mostly. It declined from then, but in 1875 there were still 163 ships going. You see this fishing was also going on for 200 years. The third group which I wish to mention is the Fin whale fishing mostly of the genus Balaenopters, and the Megaptera, the Fin whale, the Blue whale and the Humpback. It was started in Northern Norway by Svend Foyn, the inventor of the bomb harpoon gun, and the shore factories were also his idea. He started in Finmarken, only a small place, in 1865, and this industry went on for 40 years and has since, as you know, been developed in Iceland, and later in the Ant- arotic and many other places. I only wish to say these few words because you have asked me to give my opinion about the possibility of protection, and I need to have stated these few facts for the discussion of this problem. That was the only reason for my mentioning them--not that I believe that I am telling you some- thing new-but I wish to be able to refer to theen things when I come to point 7.

757. There is one point which arises out of that, although perhaps this is not quite the place for it. You have practically traced the decline of the Arctic whaling in your short historical summary, and that fishery was carried on under much more difficult con- ditions than the present fisheries in the Antarctic. One question which we shall certainly ask you before you go is to what extent you think you can argue from the Aretio conditions to the Antarctic conditions, and whether from the fact of the failure of the Arctic fishery with the use of less deadly instruments one can argue the probable failure of the Antarctic. You will probably wish not to answer this question at this moment, I do not know -It was my intention to come to this problem and I expected that I would be asked this question, and it is for you to decide when you would like me to answer it-perhaps under head 7.

758. We will leave it then over until head 7. (Mr. Baker.) I would like to ask whether you think the Green- land Right whale is extinct ?—No, I do not think it is extinct, but I think they are very scarce and few now. They have been caught up until the last few years. There has been a very little fleet from Dundee.

750. We have some information about that; so far as we know I think none have been caught from there since about 1911, but I wish to have your opinion as to the extent to which the species of whale is still alive?— I believe that it is.

760. Do you think that the Balaena biscayensis is a little more numerous even than the Greenland Right whale? It seems so; 100 specimens were reported caught from the year 1889 to 1911.

761. Do you think there is very much hunting of either the Greenland Right whale or the Balaena bis cayensis at the present time ?-No, I do not think so.

762. (Chairman.) Shall we take question 4 That is one question upon which we have been trying to get information that is the period of gestation of different breeds of whales, of which I think very little is known? -With regard to this problem there is a great mass of information from the Norwegian whaling stations in Northern Norway, and I should, of course, like very much to get an opportunity of giving you these details in a much better form than I am able to do in the few minutes which I have here, and I think that night be useful also for the Committee because very much of this information is in Norwegian papers, which may be difficult for you to understand. In order to give you an idea of what kind of information you can get in this way, I have tried to select a few examples of what we can tell you, hoping that I may be allowed later The method on to give this evidence more fully. which is followed of studying the question of the period of gestation is of course that the fœtus is measured, and on the basis of a great number of measurements it is attempted to give a picture of the development of the fetus and the length of time which that takes. I have made a few notes as to some of the most important species in connection with the Antarctic whaling, and notes from the Norwegian experience, and may I particularly mention them here? You must, of course, remember that the different species may be quite different in their life history, but you cannot

41

[Continued.

take it for granted that all whales are quite different The first remarks I have given to you about the difference in the distribution, and the migration of the different species, may show you that there must also be a difference with regard to this part of their life history. I will speak first about the Blue whale. Pairing has occasionally been observed in Norwegian waters in July and August. I told you before that the Blue whale (the plankton whale) was only up here in the summer time in June to August, or September, and that is for this reason the only period of the year in which this is observed. In this period pairing has been occasionally observed. Most of the females were, how-

ever, at the same time with young of from 3 to 5 ft. long, indicating that the pairing must have taken place in winter or spring. They cannot be 3 to 5 ft. in a month. Some young whales have now and then also been born in Norwegian waters in August. In most cauea however the whales leave these waters in the autumn, and bring forth their young in the autumn or winter months in the distant winter waters of the This last sentence is of course an North Atlantic. assumption, it is not a statement of fact. The gravid females have an average length of about 70 ft. (23-5 metres). Females have, however, been found in agravid state when only 60 ft. long. The Foetus.-The Blue whales were caught in Norwegian waters in the summer from June to August; during the eighties and nineties fifty specimens of fetuses were measured at the Fin- mark stations, all taken from the mother during these summer months. Both large and small specimens may be found simultaneously all through the summer. Specimens of two, and 20 ft. in length, have been observed almost in the same day. Professor Guldberg gives the following lengths of foetus observed in the month of July 23 ft., 7 ft., 94 ft., 7 ft., 2 ft., 9 ft., 14 ft., 6 ft., 4 ft., 6 ft., 8 ft., 6 ft. 8 in., 4 ft., 14 ft., 5 ft., 8 ft., 6 ft., 3 ft. You see they differ very much from 2 to 23 ft.

763. That is 2 to 23 ft. long?-Yes. The largest The length of fatus observed was 23 ft. (7·2 metres).

The fully grown the mother was 88 ft. or 27-6 metres. fetus may be supposed to have a length of about 25 ft. The young follow their mothers until they have reached a length of from 40 to 60 ft. A young whale, measuring 63 ft., taken off the coast of Iceland in the aummer of 1903 was found to be still unweaned; the ventricles however, also contained crustaceans, so that it must have been nearly at the end of the sucking stage. From this it is concluded (and I will give you much more proof if you like) that the whales grow very fast in the first year of free life. Occasionally the female has been seen to pair while still followed by its off spring. The period of pregnancy is supposed to exceed 12 months, but according to my information there is no definite evidence to support that. For this species it is quite certain that at the same time of the year you can find nearly born and quite young fetuses, and that pairing has been observed at a time when whales had If next we take the fætuses of different sizes. Balaenoptera borealis, which in its life history is very closely allied to the Blue whale, I have noted that most of the females taken off the coast of Finmarken in the summer were gravid, the fetus being small, not more than half grown. Young whales in the early stages are not found in our waters nor has pairing been here observed. Some 50 specimens of this species were measured in Finmarken during the whaling season at As always is the case with the close of the nineties.

the whalebone whales, these were of somewhat irregu- lar development; in June the length was generally 3 to 4ft., in July about 4 to 6ft., some, however, being 8 to 9 ft. long or even more, while others found at the same time measured only 2ft. In August the length was equally variable; in the middle of the month, at the close of the whaling season, several were found to mea- sure 8 to 10ft., others only 4 to 5 ft. A female brought in to Jarfjord (East Finmark) on the 6th of August 1888 contained a fœtus measuring only 31 ft.; another taken near Vardö on the 20th of August 1893 measured 3ft., and so on. Both these two species exhibit great variation with regard to the development of foetus at the same time of the season. Then we have the Fin whale- the Balaenoptera physalus. This species has in our waters