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Gradually we crept northward, the weather improving every day as we left the "roaring forties" astern. While thus making northing we had several fine catches of porpoises, and saw many rorquals, but sperm whales appeared to have left the locality. However, the "old man" evidently knew what he was about, as we were not now cruising, but making a direct passage for some definite place.
Two rorquals were rising close to Hut Point this morning although the ice is nowhere thick it was strange to see them making for the open leads and thin places to blow. Friday, March 31. I studied the wind blowing along the ridge yesterday and came to the conclusion that a comparatively thin shaft of air was moving along the ridge from Erebus.
The Rorquals, or "Finners," have smaller heads and mouths; their whalebone is so short as to be valueless, but they grow to even greater size than the Right whales and are found on our own coasts and all over the world. The Humpback whale is one of these "Finners," distinguished by its excessively long flippers and huge bulk. The Biscay whale was the first of these great creatures to be hunted.
We had some good views of whales in the pack. Whenever a whale was sighted Wilson was called to identify it unless it proved to belong to one of the more common species. We saw Sibbald's whale; Rorquals, and many killer whales, but no Right whales were properly identified this trip.
The commonest Whale of our seas is that small one, the Common Dolphin, who is a midget some five or six feet long. You may have seen Dolphins, for they swim near the surface, and may often be noticed not far from the shore. Like the Rorquals, they follow the Herring and Mackerel shoals. Now and again they dash into the nets, and are shown in the fish-market. Describe how the Whale breathes. 2.
This, of course, implies a very decent total of height and size; but our own sperm whale frequently attains a good length of seventy feet, while the rorquals often run up to eighty, ninety, and even a hundred feet.
We have seen a good many whales to-day, rorquals with high black spouts Balænoptera Sibbaldi. The birds with us: Antarctic and snow petrel a fulmar and this morning Cape pigeon. We have pack ice farther north than expected, and it's impossible to interpret the fact.
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