HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



27 



Figure 12. Sperm Whale being caught with floats made of sealskin [left) and of wood (right). 



{Crisp, 1954.) 



hundred years old, also depict whaling in all its aspects. These prints are 

 often veritable little jewels of Japanese art, full of warmth and beautifully 

 designed. In 1954, I was lucky enough to acquire one of these prints in an 

 anticjue shop in Tokyo (see frontispiece). 



Whaling off the Japanese coasts is still carried out intensively now, of 

 course, by up-to-date methods. In 1891 the Russians first established land 

 stations in Korea, hunting mainly Grey and Sei Whales, but these 

 stations are no longer in use. At the turn of the century whales were still 

 caught with nets on a few land stations in Kamchatka and New Zealand, 

 a method that had been practised for centuries off the coast of Norway 

 near Bergen. Once the animals' retreat from a fjord was cut off they were 

 bombarded with darts, previously dipped into dead whales. The bacteria 

 caused the poor beasts to die of gangrene within a few days. 



We have so far restricted our discussion to the hunting of Biscayan, 

 Greenland, Grey and Humpback Whales, and we must now conclude 

 our historical survey with a few words about the Sperm Whale. The 

 Sperm Whale has teeth instead of whalebone and is therefore an 

 Odontocete (Toothed Whale) unlike the Right Whales and Rorc[uals 

 which are Mysticetes (Baleen or Whalebone Whales) . 



