51 



Bottlc-nose Wlialo. Wliito Wlinlc mikI Killer Wluile. His story of whales 

 and wlialo fishiiij,'. in tlio main, corresponds very ninch willi what I have 

 I'ovnid in the anthorities that I have consulted. 



The mammalia is constituted of the highest order of the animal kinu'dom. 

 Strange as it may seem, a whale behmgs to this order, and not to that of 

 the fishes which in form and habitat, it so mucli resembles. It is a hot. 

 red blooded creature, breathing by means of lungs, wliich lie in tlie interior 

 of the body in a definite cliest cavity, sliut off from the rest of tlie ciivity 

 of the body by a large muscular partition or diaphragm. Fre(|uently it has 

 vestiges of the hairs which cover the bodies of other nianimals and the 

 presence of a few scattered hairs in tlie neighborhood of the mouth. It 

 brings forth its young alive and suckles them w-ith milk. At Kyu(|uot 

 Whalin.g Stati<m I saw the foetus of one that was six feet long that had 

 biH>n taken from a slaughtered mother whale. The bones of the skull are 

 precisely like tho.se of other mannnals. and only differ slightly in their 

 relative arrangement. 



Whales are the giants of creation: they ari' not only the largest of the 

 living animals, but of all animals that have existed, except perhaps the 

 one hundred and thirty foot Dinosaur, recently described, and in many re- 

 spects are the most interesting and wonderful of all creatures. They are 

 all fish-like in form with tapering bodies, one pair of paddles, no apparent 

 vestige of hind limbs, no external ears, tiny eyes, and black piebald or white 

 coloration. They are divided into two families, namely, Mystacoceti, or 

 toothless whalebone whales, and Odontoceti, or toothed whales. All of the 

 members of the first family are called whales, but of the second only cer- 

 tain of the larger ones are so termed, the smaller species being popularly 

 spoken of as "Bottlenoses", "Dolphins" and "Porpoises". 



The family Mystacoceti. or whalebone whales, is subdivided into three 

 genera, (1) Balaena. (2l :M(\g!iptera. and (.*>) Balenoptera. The Balaena 

 consist ot the Greenland, or more ])roi)erly Arctic right whale, and several 

 other species described according to their geographical distribution. In 

 the Greenland or Arctic right whale all the peculiarities which distinguish 

 the head and mouth of the whales from those of other mammals have at- 

 tained their greatest development. The head is of enormous size, exceetl- 

 ing one-third of the whole length of the creature. The cavity of th(> mouth 

 is actually longer than that of the bod.y. thorax, and abdomen altogether. 

 The upper .iaw is very narrow, but greatly arched from before backwards, 

 to iiici'i'ase the height of the cavity and allow for the great length of the 

 baleen, or whaU'lione : the enormous rami of tiie mandibles are widely sep- 

 arated postei'iorly, and have a still further outward sweep before they 

 meet at the symphysis in front, giving the floor of the mouth the shape of 

 an immense spoon. In front of the door to "Ye Old Canosity Shop" on the 

 wharf at Seattle. I saw a pair of jaw bones of a whale which were marked 

 as being twenty feet and one inch long and weighing one thousand pounds 

 each. 



The Baleen blades of these whales, or whalebone, as known in common 

 parlance, attain the number of three hundred and eighty or more on each 



