152 



ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA 



there is a very large wastage in the nutritive matter in the 

 sea plants before it enters the whale. We shall assume that 

 the latter offsets the former. 



The state of Rhode Island has an area of 1,250 square miles. 



If this state were 

 wholly planted in 

 grass and yielded as 

 much hay per acre 

 as the average 

 meadow, enough 

 food would be pro- 

 duced in the course 

 of a summer to sup- 

 port a maximum of 

 about 2,150 of these 

 great whales for a 

 year; the District of 

 Columbia could sup- 

 port less than 125. 



Yet whales are 

 abundant in certain 

 regions. I have my- 

 self seen on the Pa- 

 cific more than a 

 hundred atone time, 

 though these were of 

 a kind much smaller 

 than the Blue whale. 

 At the height of the 

 whale fishery at 

 Spitzbergen the 

 catch averaged 

 slightly over a thou- 

 sand whales a year, all large ones. The food of those that 

 were killed, not considering those left alive, would represent the 

 grass crop from an area eight times the size of the District of 

 Columbia. 



Figs. 415-419. Mantises, Crickets, 

 and an Earwig. 



For explanations of the figures see p. xxiv. 



