WHALING 



HIMSELF 



WHALES, to most of us who have even caught glimpses of 

 them, are known only by their spouting. True, a man 

 who spends much time at sea, and in the right places, may now 

 and again be blessed with that magnificent sight, the breaching 

 of a great cachalot, or may be privileged to watch one of the 

 whalebone whales rushing through the water to fill its capacious 

 mouth with floating food. But most of us are lucky if we see 

 only a white puff of vapour or a jet of steam, and perhaps catch 

 a glimpse of the black back that lies awash, or — more lucky 

 still — have sight of broad flukes poised for a moment above the 

 sea as the beast turns to sound. 



Yet verily, there is more to the whale than appears on the 

 surface. Between the extremes of this large family are many 

 and great variations: some whales are toothed, others are tooth- 

 less; some are shy, others are fierce and malicious. But the 

 greatest difference is in size, for the whale family, as zoologists 

 see it, includes dolphins and porpoises, thus ranging in length 

 from two to more than a hundred feet, though, in the popular 

 mind, the whale is synonymous with great size, and has been 

 from very ancient days. Pliny reported, ''in the Indian sea 

 the fish called balaena, or whirlpool, ... so long and broad 

 as to take up more length and breadth than two acres of ground." 

 Olaus Magnus, too, was very generous in measurements, giving 

 nine hundred and sixty feet to certain "hirsute" whales. 

 Even by actual measurements the whale remains the largest of 

 living creatures and the largest that ever has lived, not except- 

 ing the dinosaur. 



And almost, if not quite, as astonishing to the lay mind as the 



