I90 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEAS 



individuals ran ashore near Swansea in the summer of 



1934. 



Whales are divided into two main divisions — the 



Whale-boned Whales and the Toothed Whales, the latter 



including the majority of species. 



The Whale-bone Whales have no functional teeth and 

 the roof of the mouth is developed into thousands of 

 narrow horny plates, which depend vertically like a vast 

 curtain and act as a sieve which strains off the sea-water, 

 leaving behind the innumerable small animals which 

 serve as food. In the Antarctic species this food consists 

 mainly of shrimps, in the Arctic of sea butterflies or Vteropods. 



The Whale-bone Whales having been valued both for 

 the whale-bone and their fat have suffered most at the 

 hands of whalers. The Whale-bone Whales, and indeed 

 every other profitable species, will probably one day be 

 extinct as the result of mass slaughter, belated protective 

 measures notwithstanding. The mere figures of some 

 recent " bags " are sufficiently impressive. In the Arctic 

 Seas alone 5,204 Whales of various kinds were killed during 

 1926-1927, as against 3,5 16 in 1909-1910. Similar destruc- 

 tion goes on annually in the Atlantic, Pacific and the seas 

 surrounding Japan. 



Whaling to-day is totally unlike the hazardous but 

 comparatively leisurely methods one reads in "Moby Dick" 

 or the " Cruise of the Cachalot." The modern whaler is 

 literally a floating factory. Whales are shot with harpoons 

 fired from a cannon, the projectile in its turn exploding 

 within the quarry. The Whale is then inflated to prevent 

 it sinking and the carcase hauled on board. The blubber 

 is removed with immense sickle-shaped knives, mounted 



