The whaling station at Ulsan, Korea, 

 blubber to the Japanese markets 



A transport is ready to carry whale flesh and 



AN EXPEDITION IN KOREA 



THE CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE, SUPPOSED BY MANY NATURALISTS, TO BE 

 EXTINCT, REDISCOVERED IN KOREAN WATERS 



By Roy C. Andrews 

 With Photographs by the Author 



THE American Museum sent an expedition to Korea in 1911 primarily 

 to complete the study and collection of the Japanese whales upon 

 which work had been begun in 1910; secondarily to make a 

 zoological and geographical exploration of the country lying between 

 the Tumen and Yalu rivers along the northeastern Korean boundary.^ 

 On the previous expedition skeletons of all the large species except the 

 humpback and California gray whales had been secured. It was especially 

 desirable to acquire specimens of the latter because the "devilfish," as 

 it is often called, was believed by many naturalists to be extinct and no 

 complete specimen existed in any of the museums of Europe or America. 

 Moreover, the California gray whale is of especial importance to systematists 

 since it apparently represents an intermediate stage between the two great 

 families of whalebone whales, the Balsenopteridfe and the Baloenidae. 



For many years this species was the object of a desultory pursuit by 

 whalemen along the southern California coast where it appeared on its 

 annual migrations, but its numbers decreased until it was no longer 



1 The account of the exploration of northern Korea is held in reserve for a later issue of 

 the Journal. — Editor. 



207 



