210 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



When I arrived in the Orient at the beginning of 1912, everything had 

 been prepared for my reception. I left Japan immediately upon one of the 

 company's transports for the Korean station, situated in a beautiful bay at 

 Ulsan, on the east coast forty miles north of Fusan. The next day I had 

 my first view of the California gray whale, for a splendid specimen was 

 brought in by the steamship "Olga Maru." I shall never forget the ex- 

 citement with which I examined the extraordinary animal and studied the 

 skeleton as it was stripped of flesh. The resemblance to a right whale, the 

 typical representative of the Balsenidfe, is striking, and yet an examination 

 of the bones shows many characters allying it to the fin whales of the Bal?e- 

 nopteridiie. It was especially interesting to examine the specimen with 

 reference to the accounts of the species which have already been published, 

 for all are meagre and full of inaccuracies. Probably no whale has more 

 individual peculiarities than has this species: the shape of the head, of 

 flippers and flukes, and in fact of the entire body is quite unlike that of 

 any other large cetacean. 



Its habits too are distinctly individual. About the middle of December 

 the animals begin to appear on the coast of central Korea, following the 

 shore line closely on their migration to the islands of the south. First come 

 a few straggling males, then the main body of females, and later males alone 

 bringing up the rear. Almost all of the females are carrying young, soon 

 to be born, and they head for the quiet waters among the many islands of 

 south Korea where the birth takes place. In April the young are large 

 enough to travel northward and accompany their parents ori the long trip 

 to the Okhotsk Sea and the icel)ound shores of the Arctic. 



While the ship is following a devilfish the animal will sometimes 



come to the surface 

 very slowly and quiet- 

 ly, put just the nostrils 

 above the water and 

 blow so softly that no 

 column of vapor is 

 formed. It will then 

 sink noiselessly with- 

 out having shown 

 more than eighteen or 

 twenty inches of its 

 body above the sur- 

 face. It will also 

 swim along the shore, 



Throat of a Ki-ay whale showing tlic two characteristic often actually rolling 

 furrows. Kight whales have no throat grooves and (In j^ ^]j^> surf so close 

 whales have many; the gray whale is apparently an inter- 

 mediate stage between th(^ two familii^s that the ship cannot 



