. The seals and whales of the British seas. ition of the same work the authors state that there is no proof these references do not apply to some other species. Thesame may be said with reference to Lows remarks in the Fauna Orcadensis,p. 158. This is all we know of the supposed occurrence of Right-Whales inBritish waters in recent times, and there is little doubt that these, if Right-Whales at all, should be referred to the next species. The extreme northern habitat assigned to this species by those who havedevoted much time and labour to the investigation of the subject, clearlyproves that i
. The seals and whales of the British seas. ition of the same work the authors state that there is no proof these references do not apply to some other species. Thesame may be said with reference to Lows remarks in the Fauna Orcadensis,p. 158. This is all we know of the supposed occurrence of Right-Whales inBritish waters in recent times, and there is little doubt that these, if Right-Whales at all, should be referred to the next species. The extreme northern habitat assigned to this species by those who havedevoted much time and labour to the investigation of the subject, clearlyproves that it must either have changed its habitat, which its present habitsseem to render improbable, or that some other species formerly inhabited thetemperate seas outside the Arctic circle extending southward to the Atlanticas far as latitude 40, for it is beyond doubt that a brisk whale-fishery wascarried on in former times by the I^asque population in the Bay of Biscayand adjacent seas as far back as the Sth or loth century. That such a 11 , . \. X X o z az < -; 11 ^Id w a O SEALS AND WHALES OF TLLE BRITLSH SEAS. 53 southern species, distinct from the northern Right-whale did exist, is provedby Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt in their splendid memoir of the Greenland Whale, a translation of which, edited by Professor Flower, waspublished by the Ray Society in 1866, and of that species we shall give someaccount further on. It has been asserted that the Greenland Whales supposed formerly to havevisited our coasts, have been driven north by the increased traffic in the morefrequented seas of temperate Europe; but from the habits of this species asobserved on the west coast of Greenland, at the fishing stations establishedby the Danish Government, and recorded in the memoir just referred to, noconfirmation of this theory is afforded. The fishery at these stations was prose-cuted from the shore when the Whales appeared upon the coast in the wintermonths ; as the spring advanced they
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