Twilight in the South 339 



Another point that raises controversy about rorquals is their div- 

 ing proclivities. Whalemen, especially professional harpooners, obvi- 

 ously must know more of the true facts, but they seem not to have 

 got their opinions into print or, if they have, the results have fallen 

 prey to misrepresentation by "experts." It is categorically stated that 

 blue whales when undisturbed breach about a dozen times at twelve- 

 to fifteen-second intervals, and then sound for from ten to twenty 

 minutes. Further, they are said to be able to stay below for as much 

 as an hour. The real experts, namely the chaser skippers, will chuckle 

 at this exposition, so let me add my humble observations. It takes a 

 medium-sized blue whale well over thirty seconds to surface, blow 

 (exhale), and submerge, which means to start coming to the surface 

 at the front end, reach the blowhole, eject the air from its lungs, 

 and then pass the remaining three quarters of its great body progres- 

 sively to the surface, over, and finally under the water again. If you 

 have ever held a Foyn gun trained on a rorqual and waited for that 

 proper point between the blowhole and the fin to appear before let- 

 ting go, you will know that no whale can breach, blow, and sub- 

 merge in twelve seconds. Only the experienced whaleman can cor- 

 rect me, but I contend that, when about their own business and 

 undisturbed, rorquals are as irregular and unpredictable in their be- 

 havior as a man on a vacation or any other animal at large. At the 

 same time, they do prefer to breathe fairly regularly, and when at 

 the surface they do so about a dozen times in quick succession on a 

 rhythmical schedule, rising at about two-minute intervals and taking 

 about a minute to roll under each time; then they go below, either 

 deep or shallow, for from ten to thirty minutes. The slightest dis- 

 turbance or worry upsets their behavior and may produce a wide 

 variety of actions. 



Pinners are much more gregarious than blues and may assemble in 

 composite schools of up to three hundred or more. They are also 

 more cosmopolitan and are caught almost everywhere at all times, 

 outside the equatorial latitudes, and they are not unknown even 

 there. They are great travelers, but they do not congregate in polar 

 seas near the ice to the extent that the blue whale does. The blow of 

 rorquals is distinctive, though only a whaleman can tell that of the 

 blue from the finner. Both are vertical and narrowly funnel-shaped, 

 in still air. Whales, of course, do not spout water but forcibly eject 



