THE RORQUAL WHALE. 420 



the boats, and avenge itself by dashing them to pieces by repeated strokes of its fearful 

 tail. 



These belligerent qualities would make the whalers very cautious in dealing with such 

 formidable foes, even if their capture were attended with profit equal to the bulk of their prey. 

 But as it is found that the Rorqual is almost valueless when killed, the whalers permit it to 

 pass unmolested, and turn their attention to more valuable quarry. The layer of blubber 

 which encompasses the Rorqual is only about six or eight inches in thickness, and is very 

 chary in yielding oil, a large Whale only furnishing at the best ten or fifteen tons, and some- 

 times scarcely a single ton of this valuable substance. 



As the head of the Rorqual is not nearly so much arched as that of the Mysticetus, and 

 the capacity of the mouth is more owing to the huge pouch of the lower jaws than to the form 

 of the upper jaw, the baleen, or whalebone, is necessarily very short, scarcely reaching four 

 feet in length. Even if its quality had been good, it would be of comparatively little value. 

 Yet it is so coarse and "unkindly" that it is almost valueless for manufacturing purposes. 

 Whalers would rejoice if this substance were of more value, as it is extremely plentiful in the 

 Rorqual, the jaws being lined with five thousand distinct plates or " slabs " of baleen. 



As the food of the Rorqual is not limited to the small animals which constitute the diet of 

 the Greenland Whales, but consists also of various fish, it needs that the gullet should be 



SKELETON OP RORQUAL. 



larger than in that creature. In the stomach of a single Rorqual, six hundred large cod-fish 

 have been found, together with a considerable number of pilchards. In order to procure a 

 sufficiency of food for its vast bulk, the Rorqual often follows the shoals of migrating fish until 

 it approaches the shores, where in many cases it prefers to take up its abode, hovering round 

 the fishing-grounds, and swallowing whole boat-loads of herrings, pilchards, and other fish. 



Although the Rorqual may for a time support itself at the cost of our fishing-trade, it is 

 nearly sure to fall a victim to its own temerity, and to be left by the returning tide, helplessly 

 and ignominiously stranded on the shores. This is a season of great rejoicing among the 

 fishermen, who flock to the fatal spot with their most deadly weapons, and avenge themselves 

 of their losses by the slaughter of the giant robber. Even the " hollie-pike " himself fella 

 victim to his want of caution, and was at length stranded on the shores of the very bay which 

 he had haunted for so many consecutive years. The length of this animal was seventy-five feet. 



Owing to the persevering manner in which the Rorqual follows its prey to our coasts, it is 

 more frequently stranded upon the British shores than any other true Whale. One of these 

 animals that was thus captured was ninety-five feet in length, and weighed two hundred and 

 forty-nine tons. Its breadth was eighteen feet, the length of the head twenty-two feet. Each 

 fin measured twelve feet six inches in length. The skeleton of this magnificent animal was 

 preserved and mounted, and after the bones were dry, their united weight amounted to thirty- 

 five tons. To procure the skeleton of so large an animal is no easy matter, for the preparation 

 of a Rorqual that was only eighty -three feet in length occupied a space of three years. 



The Laplanders, who find the bones and other portions of this animal to be of great 

 service to them, unite in its chase, and employ a very simple mode of action. To harpoon 

 such a being would be useless, so they content themselves with inflicting as many wounds as 

 possible and leaving it to die. After the lapse of a few days the huge carcase is generally 

 found dead upon the strand, and becomes the property of all those who have wounded it and 



