NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 49 



The civilized whaler seeks the hunted unimal farther seaward, as frona 

 year to year it learas to shun the fatal shore. No species of the whale tribe 

 is so constantly and variously pursued as the one we have endeavored to 

 describe, and the large bays and lagoons where once these animals congre- 

 gated, brought forth and nurtured their young, are now nearly deserted. 

 Their mammoth bones lie bleaching on the shores of those placid waters, 

 and are strewn along the broken coasts from K<istern Siberia to the Gulf of 

 California. Ere long the California Gray will be known only as one of the 

 extinct species of Cetacea recorded in history. 



IV. THE HUMPBACK. 



MeGAPTERA VERSABILIS CopC. 



Description of the Animal — Measurements — Vermin Infesting Whales — Barnacles — Time 

 of Bringing- Forth the Young— How Captured — Favorite Feeding Grrounds on the Coast 



The Humpback is one of the species of Whale that roam through every 

 ocean, generally preferring to feed and play its uncouth gambols near exten- 

 sive coasts, or about the shores of islands, in all latitudes except the frozen 

 polar regions. 



It is irregular in its movements, seldom going a straight course for any 

 considerable distance ; at one time moving about in large numbers, scattered 

 over the sea as far as the eye can discern from the masthead, at other times 

 sinffli/, seeming as much at home as if it were surrounded by hundreds of its 

 kind ; at will performing the varied actions of breaching, rolling, fining, lop- 

 tailing, or scooping ; or, if a calm sunny day, perhaps lying motionless on the 

 molten-looking surface, as if life were extinct. 



Its shape, compared with the symmetrical forms of the Finback, California 

 Grey, or iSulphurbottom, is decidedly ugly, a short body with immense belly, 

 and frequently diminutive "small," inordinately large pectorals and flukes. 

 A protuberance, of variable shape and size in different individuals, placed on 

 the back about one-fourth the length from the flukes, is called the hump. 

 All combined impress the observer with the idea of abnormal proportions. 

 The top of its head is dotted with irregular rounded bunches, that project 

 above the surface about a half inch, each covering about two inches of 

 space. 



The following measurempnts and memoranda were taken by Capt. F.. S. 

 Redfield, of the whaling and trading brig " Manuella," while cruising in Beh- 

 ring Sea, September nth, 1866: 



Ft. In. 



Extreme length •. 49 7 



Length of pectorals 13 7 



Breadth " 3 2 



Distance from snout to pectorals 12 



" " corner of mouth to snout 12 



" " eye to snout 12 6 



" " spoutholes to snout 10 



Breadth of flukes 15 7 



Depth " 3 4 



Distance from arms to flukes 11 6 



" " genital slit IT 



Length of folds on belly 16 



Whole breadth of folds on belly 10 



Distance from flukes to hump 12 3 



Length of hump along the back 3 



Height of hump 1 



Depth of small close to flukes 2 6 



Thickness of small close to flukes 1 6 



1869.] 4 



