40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



about "going on to a whale,"* ■whether it is best to get out of or into it3 

 wake to avoid gallying it; and as regards safety, some prefer to liave a good 

 breeze, then, setting all practicable sail, run over the animal to leeward, at the 

 same time that the harpoon is thrown. The whale, after being struck, often 

 runs to windward, thrashing its flukes in every direction, and after going a 

 short distance frequently stops, or "brings to," "sweeping," as it is said, from 

 "eye to eye," and at the same time making a terrific noise through its spout 

 holes, called bellowing ; this sound is compared to that of a mammoth bull, 

 and adds much to the excitement in its chase and capture ; others will not 

 stop until they are hamstrung, as it were, by " spading." The spading process 

 is performed by hauling the boat near enough to cut the cords that connect 

 the body and flukes, either on top or underneath, as the attitude of the fish 

 may be ; a large vein runs along the under side of the "small," terminating 

 at the junction of the caudal fin, which, if cut, will give the animal its death 

 wound. The instrument used for cutting is called a boat spade, which may 

 he compared to a very wide chisel, with a handle six or eight feet long; some- 

 times the cords are so effectually severed that the flukes become entirely use- 

 less, and still the animal slackens its speed hardly perceptibly, showing evi- 

 dentl}' that its pectorals are its principal propellers. Another mode of stopping 

 them is by throwing a number of harpoons (detached from the line) into its 

 small, a kind of torture that-would seem, if the bleeding victim could speak, 

 it would entreat its tormenters to put an end to its misery. But when once 

 " brought to " it will remain nearly stationary for a few minutes or roll from 

 side to side, giving the officer of the boat a good opportunity to shoot a bomb- 

 lance, or use the hand lance with good effect, which soon dispatches it. But 

 sometimes one of these huge animals, in spite of bomb guns, har]>oons, and 

 all the Avhaling craft combined, will, after being fastened to, make the best of 

 its way to windward with the boat, taking it so far from the ship as to oblige 

 the men to cut the line and give up the chase. Of late Greener's gun has 

 been used to some extent in its capture. But before harpoon or bomb guns 

 came into general use, the whaleman of the North-West coast made such havoc 

 among these marine animals (which were regarded the most gigantic and 

 vicious of their kind,) as to have nearly annihilated them or have driven them 

 to some unknown feeding ground. 



III. THE CALIFORNIA GREY WHALE. 

 Rhachianectes glaucus Cope. 



Agaphelus glaucus Cope, Pr. A. N. Sci. Phil. 1868, 225. 



The California Gray is unlike other species of Balajna in its color, being of a 

 mottled gray; some individuals, however, of both male and female, are nearly 

 black. The jaw is curved downward from near the spoutholes to the "nib end," 

 or snout, and is not so wide as that of the other species in proportion to the size 

 of body. The length of tlie female is from forty to forty-four feet,f the fully 

 grown varying but little in size ; its greatest circumference twenty-eight to 

 thirty feet, its "flukes" thirty inches in depth and ten feet broad. It has no 

 dorsal fin. Its pectorals are six and a half feet in length and two and a half 

 feet in width, tapering from near the middle toward the end, which is quite 

 pointed. J It has a succession of ridges, crosswise along the back, from oppo- 

 site the vent to the flukes. 



The coating of fat, or blubber, is six to ten inches in thickness, and of a red- 

 dish cast. The average yield of oil of the female is forty barrels. The whale- 



*" Going on to a whale," is a whaleman's term for getting near enough to dart the har- 

 poon. 



t Forty-four feet, however, would be regarded as large, although some individuals have 

 been taken that were much larger, and yielding sixty or seventy barrels of oil. 



I The size of tlnkes and fins usually varies but little in proportion to the whale; the 

 side view illustration is to represent the largest extreme of those parts of the animal. 



[April, 



