"The spermaceti whale, found all over the world, and of all sizes; the longest are sixty feet, and yield about 100 barrels of oil.

"The hump-backs, on the coast of Newfoundland, from forty to seventy feet in length.

"The finn-back, an American whale, never killed, as being too swift.

"The sulphur-bottom, river St. Laurence, ninety feet long; they are but seldom killed, as being extremely swift.

"The grampus, thirty feet long, never killed on the same account.

"The killer or thrasher, about thirty feet; they often kill the other whales, with which they are at perpetual war.

"The black fish whale, twenty feet, yields from eight to ten barrels.
"The porpoise, weighing about 160 pounds."

In this same year, 1782, was published Duhamel's great Traité Général des Pêches. He also alludes to the occurrence of Bowheads in the temperate waters. of Canada.

"I know that some small whales [Nordcapers] are taken in Iceland, and that some large ones [Bowheads] are found sometimes accidentally in the more temperate Provinces, especially in Canada, where the large whales [Bowheads] are for the most part wounded by harpoons; some even are dead, which leads one to believe that they are whales which, having been chased and wounded in the northern parts, have left their home to retire into other quarters."

1

What led Duhamel to make this explanation is not evident, but if the Bowhead was really fished for in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it seems unlikely that wounded and dead whales would be the object of pursuit. Referring to the causes which induced the English to withdraw from the Greenland fishery, Duhamel remarks:

"Others pretend that the Dutch having succeeded in carrying on the fishery [at Greenland] with more economy than the English, the latter have found it more convenient and advantageous to carry on the fishery on the coasts of New England, New York, and Carolina, where they maintain many vessels, which carry the product of their fishery to England. The whales that are taken in these places are smaller than those found in the ice of the north; nevertheless, in proportion to their size, they yield oil quite abundantly.""

On page 28 he gives Acosta's story of the Florida Indians, without referring to the former, but remarks: "The truth of this which we have said has been attested by many ocular witnesses, among others, by many officers, who have been ready to establish these facts." This is the first time since 1590, I believe, that any one has been willing to vouch for the truth of Acosta's story.

A writer of this period who labored earnestly, and with some measure of success, to abate the confusion existing in cetology, was the Abbé Bonnaterre, whose Tableau Encyclopédique was published as a supplement to the Encyclopædia

Méthodique in 1789. He was well acquainted with the literature, conscious of the errors existing, and in his introduction endeavored to impress on his readers the necessity of more accuracy and detail in the descriptions of cetaceans. He seems, however, to have had little personal familiarity with the animals he treated of, and was therefore at a disadvantage in estimating the accuracy or inaccuracy of the naturalists who preceded him. The matter relating to the whalebone whales is almost entirely a compilation, but the scientific names applied to the various species are of interest.

All the whalebone whales are assembled in the genus Balana. The species are as follows:

1. B. mysticetus. "Greenland Whale." (P. 1.)

"This species is very common toward the North Pole, in the Greenland and Spitzbergen seas, chiefly beyond the 66th degree, north latitude." (P. 3.)

An excellent general account is compiled from various authors, including Fabricius, but there is no new matter other than a table of measurements of a specimen 48 feet long, reported by Captain de Pagés.

2. B. glacialis. "The Nordcaper." (P. 3.)

“Inhabits the northern seas, about Norway and Iceland."

3. B. physalus. "The Gibbar." (P. 4.)

"Found in the seas of Greenland, the European Ocean, India, and the New World."

The account of the species is compiled chiefly from Martens, Linnæus, and Fabricius.

This is Dudley's Humpback. Bonnaterre quotes from Dudley's account, but does not realize that this is the sole original source, and that all the other authors he cites take their information from it.

5. B. gibbosa. "The whale with 'bosses.'" (P. 5.) "Inhabits the seas about New England."

This is Dudley's Scrag whale, though Bonnaterre takes his information from Anderson and Klein, and is at a loss to understand why the former should assert that it yields as much oil as B. mysticetus, while the latter calls it meagre (B. macra). This apparent contradiction is due, of course, to the fact that Dudley states that the Scrag whale is "nearest to the Right whale for quantity of oil," while Klein has translated the word "scrag" by macra.

'BONNATERRE, Tableau Encyclopédique et Méthodique des Trois Règnes de la NatureCetologie. Paris, 1789. 4°.

6. B. boops. "The Jubarte." (P. 6.)

"Found ordinarily in the Greenland seas, between the 61st and 65th degrees of latitude, about Pamiuk and Pissukbik."

Bonnaterre paraphrases Fabricius's account of B. boops, which relates, of course, to the Humpback. He closes with the naïve remark: “Judging from the description of Otto Fabricius, it seems to me that there is a slight defectuosity in the figure which we have given." As the figure given is from Sibbald and represents a Finback rather than a Humpback, the "defectuosity" is not surprising. Bonnaterre also quotes in this place Sibbald's measurements of this same Finback which Linnæus called Balana boops. By thus combining Linnæus's B. boops (a Finback) and Fabricius's B. boops (a Humpback) Bonnaterre caused confusion which has lasted until the present time. In a recent paper I endeavored to point out the facts in the case. It is somewhat singular that so critical a naturalist as Bonnaterre failed to discover that his B. nodosa (from Dudley) and his B. boops (from Fabricius) were very closely related, if not identical.

7. B. musculus. "The Rorqual." (P. 7.)

"In Iceland, called Steipe-Reydus."

Bonnaterre has the correct Icelandic name in this case.

account and measurements.

8. B. rostrata. "Beaked whale." (P. 8.)

He quotes Sibbald's

"Found in large numbers in the Greenland seas; it frequently visits the seas of Europe."

Bonnaterre quotes Fabricius and Hunter. This is the Little Piked whale, Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata Lacépède.

Nineteenth Century.

In the opening decades of the nineteenth century decided advances were made in the classification of whales, in the observation of their habits, and in the descrip tion of their structure. Lacépède, Scoresby, G. Cuvier, F. Cuvier, Desmarest, Home, Camper, Brandt and Ratzburg, and Fischer were among the most important contributors to cetological literature at this period, but their work has little or nothing to do directly with American species or American observations.

The narrative of Lewis and Clark's memorable expedition to the Pacific coast in 1804-06 contains a few references to whales, which are so brief that they may be quoted here in full. The earliest incident dates from January 4, 1806, when 1Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 21, 1898, p. 624.

It is true that Fabricius himself adopted Linnæus's names, and cited the Systema Naturæ, but it is not likely that he had access to the sources from which the latter derived his facts, as Bonnaterre did.

the travellers were on the Oregon coast near the mouth of the Columbia River, and is as follows:

"Friday [January 4, 1806]. At eleven o'clock we were visited by our neigh bor the Fia, or chief Comowool, who is also called Coone, and six Clatsops. Besides roots, and berries, they brought for sale three dogs and some fresh blubber. The blubber, which is esteemed by the Indians an excellent food, has been obtained, they tell us, from their neighbors the Killamucks, a nation who live on the seacoast to the southeast, and near one of whose villages a whale had recently been thrown. and foundered.

We continued for two miles along the sand beach [Jan. 8, 1806]; and after crossing a creek [Nehalem River, Oregon], eighty yards in width, near which are five cabins, reached the place where the waves had thrown the whale on shore. The animal had been placed between two Killamuck villages, and such was their industry, that there now remained nothing more than the skeleton, which we found to be one hundred and five feet in length."1

The second note refers to the Oregon coast in general, and is as follows:

"The whale is sometimes pursued, harpooned and taken by the Indians, although it is much more frequently killed by running foul of the rocks in violent storms, and thrown on shore by the action of the wind and tide. In either case, the Indians preserve and eat the blubber and oil; the bone they carefully extract and expose to sale." 2

The systematic treatises of Dr. J. E. Gray, beginning with the Spicilegia Zoologica in 1828, and ending with the Supplement to the Catalogue of Seals and Whales in the British Museum in 1871,3 cover all groups of cetaceans and include many species founded on American material and observations. Gray was accustomed to establish genera and species on quite slight differences, real or fancied, and in so difficult a group as the Cetacea this tendency had full play. A large number of the species which he recognized were rejected by the more conservative cetologists who were contemporary with him, or followed him, but in the case of some genera there is no doubt that the condensation has been too great. Among the genera and species which Gray recognized or established are some from American waters. In his Supplement, which contains his last published views, they are as follows:

1

[From Cope. The Biscay whale he makes a separate species, Hunterius biscayensis.] Family 2. Agaphelidæ. Scrag Whales.

Agaphelus gibbosus. "Inhab. North Atlantic."

[From Cope and Dudley.]

Rhachianectes glaucus. "Inhab. California, San Francisco."

[From Cope.]

Coues's

History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark, 2, 1814, pp. 104, 110-111. edition has the following note (2, p. 750): "Clark I 99 erases 105' and gives no dimensions."

Op. cit., p. 196.

GRAY, J. E., Supplement to the Catalogue of the Seals and Whales in the British Museum, 8°, 1871.

Family 3. Megapterida. Humpbacked Whales.

Megaptera americana. Inhab. Bermuda.”

[From the anonymous writer of 1665 in the Philos. Transactions, Dudley, a tracing in the British Museum, and Hartt's Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil.] Megaptera osphyia. "Inhab. Atlantic."

[From Cope.]

Megaptera versabilis. "Inhab. North Pacific, California coast."

[From Cope.]

Eschrichtus robustus. "Inhab. North Sea, coast of Devonshire, Sweden, Atlantic."

[The only American reference is Cope's statement that there is a ramus of an under jaw in the museum of Rutgers College.]

Family 4. Physalide.

Physalus antiquorum. "Inhab. North Sea, Greenland, Hampshire, etc."

Sibbaldius sulphureus. "Inhab. North Pacific, northwest coast of America, California." [From Cope.]

Sibbaldius tectirostris. "Inhab. North Pacific " [really Atlantic].

[From Cope.]

Sibbaldius tuberosus. “Inhab. northeast coast of America."

[From Cope.]

Balaenoptera velifera. "Inhab. Oregon, California, Queen Charlotte's Sound."
[From Cope.]

In all this, it will be observed, there is but one species which Gray himself established, Megaptera americana. For this the only original material he had was a tracing of unknown origin. It is singular that he does not give M. longimana an American habitat, as in the Catalogue of 1866 he mentioned four specimens from Greenland as being in the British Museum. They were from Eschricht's collection. In 1870 Dr. Gray published an article entitled "The Geographical Distribution of the Cetacea,"1 which is a kind of confession of faith as regards the discrimination of species and allied matters. It presents in the clearest manner Dr. Gray's views on these subjects, and is accompanied by an extensive list of species, which latter are divided among three geographical areas: (1) the northern and temperate seas, (2) the tropical seas, and (3) the south, or southern temperate seas. The list contains no less than 50 species and varieties of baleen whales. It is full of errors and misconceptions, and is chiefly interesting as showing Dr. Gray's point of view at the time it was published. Much more can doubtless be said in favor of that part of the list which relates to the Delphinide than that which includes the Baleenida.

In Feb., 1874, Dr. Gray published a brief note on the Megaptera bellicosa of Cope, in which he expressed the opinion that the species was a very distinct one, but that the name was a synonym of Megaptera americana Gray.

1

Frederic Cuvier's Natural History of Cetaceans, published in 1836, contains

GRAY, J. E., The Geographical Distribution of the Cetacea. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (4), 6, 1870, 387-394.

' GRAY, J. E., On the Bermuda Humpbacked Whale of Dudley (Balana nodosa, Bonnaterre; Megaptera americana, Gray; and Megaptera bellicosa, Cope). Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (4), 13, 1874, p. 186.