The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-08-27

Interesting Discovery Recently Made
BY Antartic Expedition,

ny Anlaluc ExpeQltOns
Rumors Of an antartic whale, unknown
to science, have reached this country
from time to time, exciting interest,
tinged with seepticisin, among Europ.
can natnralists. These rumors have
been amply confirmed by Mr. Il. A.
Wilson, naturalist to the recent dis
euvery expedition. On Jan 2s, 1902,
three Of these whales, easily recognized
by the highland marrow back f1G we're
seen on Ross great Ice barrier, and
fonr others on Feb, following They
were not large, as whales 20, measuring
only between 20 and 30 feet ii length,
with short blunt miizzIes, black above
and white below, the characteristic fin
standing three OF four feet above the
back Mi. Wilson assigns this new whale
III the Mystacoceti-- the balecn or
whalebone group Of eetaceans -and CON
siders that ii viii prove to constitute a
new genas.
IL is TO our grief that Sir William
Flower is no longer among us to share
the interest in this discovery. Deep
and catholic as was his affection for an
living creatures, he made the whales his
their approaching determination.
For countless centuries Che said iii a
lecture W the Royal institution in 1881
impulses from without have been grad
uafly shaping the whales into their pres
ent wonderful form and gigantic sizes
but the very perfection Of their structure
and theiF magnitude combined, the rich
supply Of oil protecting their internal
parts from cold, the beautiful apparatus
OF whalebone by which their nutrition il
provided for. have been fatal gifts which
under the sudden revolution produced
on the surface Of the globe by the de-
selopment OF the wants and arts Of
civilized man eannotsbut lead in few
years TO their partial, if not complete
extinction.
While Sir. William Flower held that
Ithe evidence was "absoluttly conclusive
that whalos represent the adoption Of
a terrestrial mammal 20 an eqnatio ex-
istence, he was equally firmly convinced
that they are not descended like seals
and walruses, from tic earnivores, but
that they exhibit oiiinities with the I'M,
gulates. True that none Of the ceta.
ceans are vegetarian, but Sir William
Flower believed that primitive uagu-
lates were omnivorous. az their least
modified descendants, the pigs, remain
70 this day, Trcacherous and mislead-
ing as is most popular zoology, he con
! sidered that it was true flash of intel
| iigence which caused sailors and fisher
folk TO give so the commoner and smaller
cetaceans such names az sea. hog, sea.
pig and herring-bog The French also
not content with lending us pore.pois-
son 70 shorten into porpoise, have in
turn borrowed meerschwein from the
Germans. and altered 1t to marsouin to
denote pig fish.
1--WE may conclude said Sir William
Flower, "by picturing to ourselves some
primitive, generalized, marsh hunting
animals with scanty covering Of haiI
like the modern hippopotamus. but with
broad swimming tails ana short limbs
omniyoFous in their mode Of feeding
probably combining ter-plants with
muscles, worms, and fresh-water cfus.
taeeans gradually becoming more and
more adapted to al the void place ready
for them on the aquatic side Of the Dor
derland on which they dweit, and SO by
degrees being modified into dolphin-li like
creatures mhabiting lakes AMI rivers
and ultimately finding their way into
the ocean. -. Favored by various
conditions Of temperature and climate
wealth Of food9supply, almost complete
Immunity FROM deadly enemies, and IL
timitable expauses in which TO roam
they have undergone the various modi
| fcations at which the cetacean type has
now arrived, and gradually attained
that colossal magnitude which was moi
always an attribute Of the animals 81
this group"
still evolution has It's limitations. and
although March brown or a Mayhy
changes in the twinkling Of an eye from
water breathing animal to an air
breather, tens Of thousands of year.
have not sufiiccd 50 20 alter the respira
tory system of equatic mammals a,
to exempt them from the necessity 81
coming to the surface TO breaths, there
BY exposing themselves fatally to as
sanlt by restless, ruthless man.-Pal
| Nall Eagoffo