a few references to American baleen whales. The work is a comprehensive one, and contains a summary of most of the important observations previously published. The treatment of species is conservative, but the conclusions reached have not all been confirmed by later researches. The whalebone whales are placed in two genera, "the rorquals" and "the whales." For the former the new genus Rorqualus is established, and the species recognized are R. boops, R. musculus, and R. antarcticus.

Under Rorqualus, Cuvier mentions the observations of Dudley, Egede, and Anderson, which have to do with American whales. Regarding Dudley he says:

"Dudley speaks also of two whales with folds under the body, and a dorsal protuberance: the 'Finback whale,' of which the dorsal fin is 2 feet long, and the pectoral fins from 6 to 7 feet; the 'Humpback whale,' which, in place of a fin, has a simple hump a foot high and pointed behind. Its pectoral fins are sometimes 18 feet long and very white. But these ideas, derived from Dudley, seem to have been poorly appreciated up to this time."

This is an odd remark, as Cuvier himself seems not to have appreciated the singularity of a whale with pectoral fins " 18 feet long and very white." He makes no further reference to it, except to remark that "the 'Humpback whale' of the same author [Dudley] is not a whale, but a rorqual; for he says, in explicit terms, that this cetacean has longitudinal folds-like that of which he speaks immediately before (the 'Finback whale')- on the belly and sides, from the head to the origin of the pectoral fins." 2

Regarding Dudley's description of the "Scrag whale" Cuvier remarks:

"For ourselves, we only see in it a very insignificant note, which probably contains an error in citing the protuberances of the back as osseous; it only serves to arouse suspicions as to the value of the characters drawn from these protuberances, and further to make it doubtful whether this cetacean was not a rorqual, for the Finback whale' to which Dudley compares his 'Scrag whale' is a genuine rorqual." 2

Cuvier rejects the Nordcaper as a separate species.

The epoch-making works of Eschricht cover the period from 1840 to 1873. He investigated many phases of cetology beyond the scope of the present paper. On account of the diversity of the subjects treated of and the immense mass of facts accumulated, it is very difficult to summarize his work. The larger part of his investigations relate to baleen whales, and much of his material was American, having been obtained by Captain Holböll in Greenland. This material consisted chiefly of specimens of the Greenland Humpback, both skeletons of adult individuals, fœtuses, and anatomical preparations. Many of the skeletons were distributed to other European museums beside those of Copenhagen, and the descriptions of the Humpback published by Van Beneden and other European writers are drawn from these American specimens.

The main body of Eschricht's work is the series of six essays in the Royal

CUVIER, F., De l'Histoire Naturelle des Cétacés, 1836, p. 309.

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Danish Scientific Society's Afhandlinger and Skrifter, 1845-1849. Being in the Danish language, they are a sealed book to many zoologists, who either lack the opportunity, or have not the inclination, to acquire that tongue. For this reason they were not appreciated by Eschricht's contemporaries as they might have been. Feeling this himself, he undertook to republish the series in German with many changes and additions, but the German edition was never completed. More will be said of it later. The essays themselves were preceded by several short papers, beginning in 1840, in which the scope and objects of the investigations were described. The essays may be summarized as follows:

ESSAY 1.-Remarks on the earlier and present phases of cetology.

In this essay Eschricht treats chiefly of the history of different departments of cetology, beginning with the Delphinide. The genus Hyperoödon is briefly consid ered, and afterwards he treats of the sperm whale in much detail. Next follow the baleen whales, of which there are stated to be two groups-Right whales and Finbacks. Regarding the former, Eschricht remarks: "Since Cuvier's time two kinds are usually distinguished, the northern Balaena mysticetus, and the southern, B. australis." At this date Eschricht seems not to have discovered that the Nordcaper was distinct from B. mysticetus or even from the Humpback.

He next takes up the question of geographical distribution, notes the reduction in numbers of whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but combats the theory that the distribution area shrinks at any time. He refers to the distribution of the Right whale in the South Atlantic, and quotes Holböll as to the migrations of the Greenland whale on the west coast of Greenland. He mentions Dudley and gives the seasons for the whale fishery and other details.

Next come the Finbacks, including under that head the Humpbacks. He describes their distribution; mentions Sibbald, the anonymous writer in the Phil. Trans., etc.; cites their use as a food resource by Greenlanders and Norwegians, and their relative value for oil, etc. He describes the early modes of fishing for large whales in Norway and elsewhere; quotes Fabricius's account of the Humpback fishery in Greenland and also that of Holböll; states that the Greenlanders cared little for the Finbacks, but that Humpbacks have been taken regularly at Greenland and also at Bermuda. He then takes up the question as to whether the Basque fishery of the sixteenth and seventeenth century may not have been for Finbacks,

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1 1. Bemærkninger over Cetologiens tidligere og nærværende Skjebne. Dansk. Videns. Selsk. natur. og math. Afhandl., 11, 1845, pp. 129–202.

2. Anatomisk Beskrivelse af de ydre Fosterformer hos to nordiske Finhval-Arter, med Anvendelse paa Physiologien og Zoologien. Do., pp. 203-279.

3. Om Fosterformerne i Bardehvalernes Ernaerings- og Forplantelsesredskaber. Do., pp. 281-320, pls. 1-4.

4. Om Næbhvalen. Do., pp. 321-378, pls. 5-8.

5. Finhvalernes Osteologie og Artsadskillelse. Do., 12, 1846, pp. 225-396, pls. 9–16.

6. Udbytte paa en Reise gjennem det nordvestlige Europa i Sommeren 1846, som Tillæg til de foregaaende Afhandlinger. Dansk. Videns. Selsk. Skrifter, 5te Raekke, natur. og math. Afd., 1, 1849, pp. 85-138.

and leaves it with the remark that neither Right whales nor the Common Finback seem to fit the accounts. He states that there was apparently no regular coast fishery formerly from which opportunity could be had to investigate the Finbacks, and hence knowledge of them depended on occasional strandings. He gives a brief account of specimens examined on various parts of the coast of Europe at different dates. He then takes up the history of the development of knowledge regarding Finbacks, citing Dudley, Sibbald, Cuvier, Holböll, etc. Eschricht concludes that one may be convinced that there are many species of Finbacks in the south seas and the north, and states that the characters of these will be treated of in subsequent essays.

He calls attention to the defects of anatomical descriptions, due to imperfect material, and to the use of fishery stations, especially in Greenland and near Bergen, and enumerates the advantages to be obtained. He then mentions the material obtained by him from Holböll and Christie (in Bergen).

ESSAY 2.- Anatomical descriptions of the external form of the fœtuses of two species of Northern Finbacks, with application to physiology and zoölogy.

The two species of Finbacks are the Little Piked whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, and the Greenland Humpback. Though of much importance, the descriptions are not germane to the purpose of the present paper, but the essay ends with a section "on the use of whale foetuses in the determination of species," in which the characters of Fabricius's B. boops and Rudolphi's B. longimana are carefully considered, and the conclusion reached that "the B. longimana of Rudolphi and Brandt really is specifically identical with Fabricius's B. boops."

ESSAY 3.-On the foetal forms of the alimentary and reproductive apparatus in the baleen whales.

ESSAY 4.-On Beaked whales [Hyperoödon].

These two essays do not concern us in the present connection. Their contents are sufficiently indicated in the titles.

ESSAY 5.-The osteology and discrimination of species of Finback whales.

In this long and important essay the skeletons of Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata and the Greenland Humpback are minutely described and many bones figured. Eschricht then takes up the question of the specific characters of the two whales above mentioned and enumerates them seriatim, after which he enumerates the dif ferences which seem to separate the Little Piked whale, or Tikagulik of Greenland, from the Vaagehval (B. acuto-rostrata) of Norway. Regarding this he says that as to whether they are specifically identical he has many times changed his opinion. Later he remarks: "As the Vaagehval and Tikagulik agree fully, especially in regard to the color of the baleen and the number of vertebræ, as well as in the whole and every part of the different sections of the vertebral column, I have not thought that the above-mentioned differences can be considered as sufficient ground on which to establish specific distinctness." He then describes a Common Finback which stranded on the coast of Norway in 1841, and discusses its affinities, and afterwards enumerates the kinds of whales found in Greenland waters and known to the Eskimos, and quotes a description and measurements by Möller of a Finback

stranded at God havn, Greenland, in 1843. He discusses Möller's data and describes and figures one of the pectoral fins of this specimen which was sent to him, and connects the species with Holböll's "Kepokarnak" and the Ostend Finback of 1827. He sums up the whole section as follows: That it is demonstrated that there are at least three different species of Finbacks in the northern seas: (1st) "In the longhanded group, the Greenland 'Keporkak,' B. longimana; in the short-handed, (2d) the Norwegian 'Vaagehval,' B. minor, and (3d) the common, large short-handed Finback, B. boops." That there are as good as certain (4th) a special large, short-handed species, B. musculus, and at least highly probable (5th) the Greenland "Kepokarnak," and not improbable (6th) the Greenland "Tikagulik" or B. rostrata Fabr., distinct from the Norwegian "Vaagehval." Finally, Eschricht passes in review all the principal observations on the geographical distribution of these supposed species, including Holböll's Greenland researches, and the early accounts concerning the Bermudas in the Philosophical Transactions.

ESSAY 6.-Results of a journey through northwestern Europe in the summer of 1846, as a supplement to the preceding treatises.

This essay is divided into three sections, one on the Beaked whales, another on the Humpbacks, and a third, on short-handed, or true, Finbacks. Eschricht visited several of the more important museums of Europe, notably those of London, Paris, and Berlin, and examined many of the skeletons described by other authors, including the type of Megaptera longimana, and other very important specimens. He not only comments on these, but reviews and revises his earlier observations, and this essay may be considered as embodying his final views regarding the species of Humpbacks and Finbacks. The paper is of much importance in the present connection, as the Greenland species are commented upon no less than the European ones, and at this time Eschricht had made actual comparisons of specimens of both.

As already stated, Eschricht became apprehensive that his work would not receive the attention it deserved, on account of its publication in Danish, and hence resolved to republish it in German.' The German edition, he tells us, is not to be regarded as a translation, but as a new working over of the whole material, with a more orderly presentation of data and conclusions. Certain it is that the two editions differ widely, and much that is in the Danish is not in the German. This is due in part to the fact that the latter was never completed. Only the first volume of the three which Eschricht planned was completed as he intended. The second, fourth, and fifth Danish essays are the ones most nearly reproduced in the German edition.

In the latter, as in the former, the principal data of importance in the present connection are the descriptions of the Finbacks and Humpbacks of Greenland, and the opinions of Eschricht based on his comparisons of Greenland and European specimens of these whales. In addition to Eschricht's own researches, translations are given of two communications of Holböll on Greenland baleen whales, and one by Motzfeldt relating in part to the same subject.

'ESCHRICHT, D. F., Zoologisch-anatomisch-physiologische Untersuchungen über die nordischen Wallthiere, ite Band, Leipzig, 1849.

The great work on the Greenland Right whale published by Eschricht and Reinhardt in 18611 interests us chiefly on account of the discussion of the relation of B. mysticetus to the Nordcaper, in the course of which numerous facts relating to the Right whale of the east coast of temperate North America are commented upon. In 1858 Eschricht published an article on a new method of studying the Cetacea, in which he called attention to the desirability of making observations at the various whale-fishing stations in different parts of the world. Among the stations mentioned are those in Davis Strait, where Captain Holböll obtained so much valuable material for Eschricht's researches. The manner in which this material was obtained is described, and a summary given of the species frequenting Davis Strait, their migrations and other data.

Eschricht's essay on the geographical distribution of the northern whales in earlier times and at present, which was published in 1849, relates chiefly to the Greenland whales. It is one of the earliest, as well as one of the best, treatises on the distribution of the cetaceans. His paper entitled "Researches on the Distri bution of the Cetacea in the Northern Seas," published in 1864, is also almost entirely devoted to the Greenland whales, and treats particularly of the migrations of Balana mysticetus in Davis Strait.

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In a work called "Newfoundland in 1842," Sir Richard Bonnycastle devoted a chapter to cetaceans, in which he calls attention to the whale fishery carried on there, and notes various cetaceans he has observed about the island. The article is unfortunately largely taken up by citations from Scoresby, Dewhurst, and other authors, and it is not always clear whether the statements made are based on Bonnycastle's own observations or derived from the works mentioned. Deprived of extraneous matter, the article, in so far as it relates to baleen whales, amounts to this that Sir Arthur saw a "B. acuto-rostrata, or sharp-nosed whale," within a day's sail of St. John in 1840; that the commonest species in Newfoundland waters, as he believes, is the "B. jubartes, or pike-headed finner," with a dorsal fin 23 feet high, and which feeds upon capelin, etc.; that whales of various sizes and kinds are common in the St. Lawrence, about Gaspé, and on the Labrador coast; that he repeatedly saw a "black and grey" whale in the Bay of Seven Islands, St. Lawrence River, in 1831; that on the 23d of July, 1840, at the entrance to Conception Bay, Newfoundland, he saw a "pipe-headed whale" about twenty-five feet long, with a brown back and white belly; that on July 24, 1840, he saw "whales innumerable" in Conception Bay and continued to see some of them all the way to St. John's."

1ESCHRICHT og REINHARDT, Om Nordhvalen. Dansk. Vid. Sels. Skrif., 5, 1861, 433-589. Translation in Ray Society Publications, under the title of Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea." Edited by Sir Wm. H. Flower.

'ESCHRICHT, D. F., Sur une nouvelle Méthode de l'Étude des Cétacés. Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, 47, 1858, pp. 51-60.

'ESCHRICHT, D. F., Om de nordiske Hvaldyrs geographiske Udbredelse i nærværende og i

tidligere Tid. Forhandl. Skand. Naturforsk. 5te Möde, 1849, pp. 103-118, pl. 1.

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* ESCHRICHT, D. F., Recherches sur la Distribution des Cétacés dans les Mers Boréales. Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., 1, 1864, pp. 201-224.

'BONNYCASTLE, A., Newfoundland in 1842, 1, pp. 239-255.