i yo A BOOK OF WHALES 



as is known to the Pacific coasts of North America. 

 In the summer it is found in arctic regions ; in the 

 winter it descends to warmer latitudes, but does 

 not migrate below 20.0 N. It is essentially a coast 

 species, frequenting shoal waters, and has been 

 observed to lie and play among the breakers in 

 water not more than 13 feet deep. During the 

 season of gestation they will even lie in water of 

 two feet, waiting aground until the rising tide floated 

 them off. Aelian also stated that whales bask on 

 the shore in the rays of the sun ! The pursuit of 

 this whale is distinctly dangerous.* For the animal 

 will, if her young be injured, pursue the boat and 

 overturn it or stave it in with a stroke of the flukes. 

 Apart from such danger, owing to the deliberate 

 attacks of the whale, the whalers undergo much risk 

 on account of the fact that the whales are pursued 

 in shallow water, which naturally gets turbid through 

 the struggles and rapid movements of the whale, 

 and thus renders it difficult to see the exact position 

 of the creature, and to escape from its rushes or 

 the strokes of its ponderous tail. The pursuit of 

 this whale only dates from the year 1846, and from 

 that year to 1874 or 1875 Scammon thinks that about 

 10,800 must have been destroyed. 



* A " cunning, courageous, and vicious " animal, says Mr J. D. Caton 

 ("The California Grey Whale," American Nat., xxii., p. 509). The same 

 author has also stated that an individual of this species actually pursued 

 a boat's crew on land and " treed them all " ! 



