Twilight in the South 329 



pessimistic professional whalemen broke down and admitted to the 

 press they had never seen so many whales in their lives — so many, 

 in fact, that the hard-bitten chaser captains had to wallow about 

 among hundreds of the beasts for weeks on end without so much as 

 touching one of them because their quotas were already filled and 

 the international total of sixteen thousand blue-whale units was al- 

 ready taken. There is no doubt that the larger species, Hke the rights, 

 the humpbacks, the finners, and the blues, have been reduced in 

 numbers greatly and permanently not only in the Northern but also 

 in the open waters of the Southern Hemisphere. It is equally cer- 

 tain that some species, like the sperm, have been making a healthy 

 comeback. There is far less certainty as to the real extent to which 

 the rorquals have been depleted in the Antarctic. Despite the over- 

 all international annual quota of sixteen thousand blue-whale units — 

 to each of which there is either one blue, two finners, two and a 

 half humpbacks, or six seis — which is taken every year, and usually 

 somewhat exceeded through sundry dishonest practices, the whale 

 stock has several times displayed a startling and incredible, though 

 admittedly temporary, world-wide flare-up. 



The rorquals are comparatively fast breeders, though they have 

 an average of only a single calf every other year. The gestation 

 period of whales, of course, varies greatly according to the species, 

 but it is, in general, surprisingly short, being only 305 to 365 days 

 for the finner and a year for the sperm. Most whales are of great size 

 when born; they grow very rapidly, are weaned in short order, reach 

 puberty in only a few years and full maturity soon after. Female 

 rorquals have an astonishingly high reproductive capacity, so far 

 as we can ascertain, since this is not an easy thing to investigate, and 

 they seem to become impregnated and to give birth like clockwork 

 from the day they become sexually able. The infant mortality seems 

 to be surprisingly low; twin births are not uncommon; and even the 

 young have few enemies or other natural deterrents to their growth 

 and survival. Finally, whales are not, as was previously and for some 

 inexplicable reason thought, short-lived. A killer, named affection- 

 ately "Old Tom," who could not possibly be mistaken, due to sundry 

 physical peculiarities, haunted an Australian shore station for more 

 than eighty years. He was the leader of a pack who deliberately as- 

 sisted the owners of this whaling station in their daily hunting for 



