“The natural affection of this species is interesting. The cub, being
insensible to danger, is easily harpooned, when the attachment of the


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mother is so manifested as to bring it almost certainly within the
reach of the whaler. Hence, though the cub is of little value, it is
often struck as a snare for the mother.”.
“There is something extremely painful in the destruction of a whale,
when thus evincing a degree of affectionate regard for its offspring
which would do honour to the superior intelligence of human beings ;
“yet,” continues this otherwise humane writer, “ the object of the
adventure, the value of the prize, the joy of the capture, cannot be
sacrificed to feelings of compassion.”

Captain Seoresby, the able writer-of the preceding paragraphs, and
a practical and successful whaler, killed during twenty-eight voyages,
no less than 498 whales, from whom he obtained 4,246 tons of oil and
a large supply of whalebone; these together, realized a little over
£150,000 sterling.
From 1814 to 1817, a period of great activity among whalers of all
nations, the British alone captured in Greenland and Davis’ Straits,
5,030 adults of this species, omitting of course the enumeration of the
many helpless young, valueless, save as a lure for the destruction of
their dams. This great and indiscriminate slaughter soon caused these
localities, then crowded with these valuable animals, to be fished out,
and the trade destroyed.
Genus EUBALENA, Gray.
Baleen thick, moderately long, broad at the base; enamel thin;
fringe arranged in several layers, coarse and rigid; head about one-
fourth of the entire length of the body ; nasal bones short and broad.
Evsarmya’ Brscayensis, Eschricht. The Bay of Biscay Whale.
Synonyms—Baleine franche du golf de biscaye, Eschricht.
Baleine de biscaye, Van Beneden.
