WHALES AND WHALING 295 



with a flag, and allowed to float until the whaler has 

 captured sufficient whales. Then the ship collects the 

 whales which have been previously taken and tows 

 them to the whaling station, where they are con- 

 verted into whalebone, oil, and meal. 



A few large ships, which are in reality floating 

 whaling stations, still sail great distances in search 

 of whales, returning with a cargo of whale oil, meal, 

 and whalebone. Small steamers resembling tugboats 

 act as tenders for these large whalers, capturing the 

 whales and bringing them to the mother ship, where 

 the blubber is cut off and rendered into oil. The meat 

 and bones are cooked, dried, and ground into meal 

 and fertilizer. 



The steamer Folk, which sailed into New York not 

 long ago with nineteen thousand barrels of oil aboard, 

 is one of these floating whaling stations, which resem- 

 ble in many respects the old-time whaling vessels. 

 This Norwegian ship had captured three hundred 

 whales and rendered their blubber into oil while on an 

 eight months' cruise in the vicinity of the South 

 Shetland Islands. 



There are very few whales left in the North 

 Atlantic Ocean or in the North Sea. The great whal- 

 ing grounds lie far to the south in the neighborhood 

 of the subantarctic islands, known as the South 

 Shetlands, South Orkneys, and Falklands. American 

 whalers seldom visit this region, the Norwegians now 

 taking most of the whales. The few American whalers 

 that still search for the largest game in existence now 

 sail either from California or Alaska, visiting the 

 various whaling grounds of the North Pacific. 



