RIGHT WHALES 129 



their having congregated at the same feeding-spot. 

 There are various thrilling stories of adventures with 

 harpooned whales ; but it seems that the dangers are 

 not due to any ferocity on the part of the animal 

 itself, which is one of the most timid of beasts, so 

 much so, indeed, that "a bird alighting upon its back 

 sometimes sets it off in great agitation and terror." 

 It is in this respect markedly unlike the fierce and 

 malicious Californian whale. (See p. 170.) The 

 accidents that have happened to the whalers are 

 simply due to the struggles of the great beast 

 when harpooned ; they are not purposely directed 

 at its enemies at all. But it is said that a Greenland 

 whale cannot throw up into the air, in the way that 

 Scoresby depicts in an oft-copied picture, a boat 

 and its crew. Since a whale of 60 feet in length 

 would weigh one hundred tons, it is not at all 

 surprising that the lashing of its tail and its 

 terrified rushes may prove extremely dangerous. 



It has been mentioned that there are slight varia- 

 tions in the Greenland whale, chiefly concerning the 

 proportions of the head and trunk. 



Scammon distinguishes the " Bowhead " or Great 

 Polar whale from the Risdit whale of the north- 



o 



western coast, Balcena sieboldii of Gray. But this 

 latter whale is probably B. australis, which will be 

 dealt with on another page. This whale has the 

 longest whalebone of all the whalebone whales. In 

 a whale of 47 feet long the " bone " was as much as 

 10 feet 6 inches long. The length may even reach 

 12 feet, and the colour is black, not piebald or white, 



K 



