HIMSELF 9 



beast, much given to ''breaching," ''bolting," "finning," and 

 "lobtailing" — which last means standing on his head and churn- 

 ing the sea with his great flukes! Besides these antics, hump- 

 backs use their long flippers, during the breeding season, for 

 the most preposterous caresses — love-pats, which, on a still 

 day, resound across the water for miles. He is generally black 

 with white markings beneath and with flippers entirely white 

 or parti-coloured, and there are deep folds on his throat and 

 chest. 



The gray whale, or California gray whale as he used to be 

 called, is a whale for whalers^ yarns, and startling are the yarns 

 that have been spun about him. He varies in colour from a 

 mottled gray to black and for nearly half a century he was 

 known to Occidental whalers and naturalists as native to the 

 Pacific coast of North America only, migrating to Arctic regions 

 in summer, and in the winter to warmer waters, but never below 

 20° North. Only lately we have learned that a whale so closely 

 allied to the California gray as to be his twin is, and long has 

 been, the basis of the winter whaling on the Korean seacoast. 

 Here, be it observed, he was popularly known by the exact 

 Japanese equivalent of the nickname long respectfully given 

 him by Occidental whalers — devilfish. He frequents shoal 

 waters, playing sometimes among the breakers in wa,ter not 

 over thirteen feet deep. During the gestation period the fe- 

 males come virtually ashore, floated in and out by the tide. 

 Here begin the amazing yarns of the gray whale: reputed to be 

 fearless and evil-tempered, this wicked creature would without 

 hesitation attack a boat and has even been reported, in sober 

 earnest, to have pursued a boat's crew on land and "treed them 

 all!" On the other hand, his complete and helpless terror of 

 the orca, or killer whale, has not always been known in Cali- 

 fornia, though it is common knowledge in Japan. From about 

 1850 to 1875 he was the mainstay of Pacific shore whaling, and 

 during those years probably well over ten thousand were 

 destroyed. By the same token. Pacific shore whaling also was, 

 by that time, at an end. The baleen of the gray whale is only 

 about fourteen to sixteen inches long and light-coloured, some- 



