SPECIES OF WHALEBONE WHALES 



207 



original measurements except for the third and tenth in the list, were made in metres 

 and kilograms. The total weights are given as the sum of the weighed parts, but do not 

 appear to make allowance for the loss of fluids, except that two of them include an 

 estimate of the weight of blood. Heyerdahl (1932) notes this point and puts the blood 

 content at 8 % of the body weight. Laurie (1933) refers to an additional Blue whale of 

 29-5 m. which was believed to have weighed 1637 tons. Schultz (1938) gives a list of 

 records of the lengths and weights of whales which includes nearly all those shown in 

 Table 4 together with a considerable number of foetuses, the latter being quoted from 

 Ommanney (1932, p. 463). 



Blood included. f Blood not included. 



Since direct weighing naturally presents enormous difficulties, it would be desirable 

 to work out a formula or curve by which the weight can be calculated from measure- 

 ments. Such formulae have been proposed from time to time but cannot of course give 

 more than rough estimates. Guldberg (1907) assumed that the specific gravity of a 

 whale is equal to that of water, and took the greatest girth of the body as the common 

 base of two cones of which the snout and tail formed the apices. His formula is 



, where V is the volume of the whale, D the diameter of the base of the cones 



V 



nLD i 

 12 



and L the total length. Heyerdahl (1932), taking into consideration the known weights 



LO 2 1 LO 2 \ 



of two whales, proposed the following formula : V = 1 or — - in fat whales I , where 



O is the girth. On the principle that the weight should vary as the cube of the linear 

 dimensions, Laurie (1933) drew separate curves based on each of the Blue whale weights 

 in Table 4 and found that they agreed fairly well. They indicate that a Blue whale 50 ft. 

 long would weigh about 20 tons, but a 100 ft. whale would weigh about 160 tons. 

 Zenkovic (1937) criticized Guldberg 's formula and found a better agreement with known 



