AN EXPEDITION IN KOREA 213 



follow; it will even slide in behind rocks and tr^^ to hide, until the men on 

 the vessel have become tired of waiting and leave. Gray whales live in 

 perpetual terror of the killer whale which seems to single out this species 

 especially for attacks. When a herd of killer whales surround a devilfish, 

 the latter will often turn upon its back, the fins extended, and lie quietly at 

 the surface seemingly paralyzed by fear. The killers force open the mouth 

 and at times eat almost the entire tongue before the gray whale escapes; 

 or the animal may even be killed, and completely devoured. 



I had always been skeptical as to just how much truth lies in the story 

 that the killers really try to eat the tongues of living whales; it has been 

 recorded in almost every account relating to the Orcas, but I had always 

 considered it extremely improbable. After witnessing it in the case of the 

 California gray whales however, my doubts entirely disappeared. 



One fine skeleton was taken for the Museum and a second, by arrange- 

 ment, for the National Museum at Washington. Many photographs also 

 were secured (the only ones in existence of this species), together with much 

 alcoholic material, and three rolls of motion-picture films, besides notes and 

 measurements of the thirty individuals which w^ere taken during my stay at 

 Ulsan. 



We wished to get also the skeleton of a humpback whale. Although 

 humpbacks are common in many parts of the Avorld, they have been so 

 persistently hunted in Japan, that they are now extremely rare. The 

 humpback furnishes the most highly esteemed food of all the whales and in 

 the Japanese markets the flesh of a single indi\'iflual brings as much as 5000 

 yen ($2500). 



February came and I had almost despaired of getting a hmnpliack 

 in Korea, for only one had been taken during the entire season. On the 

 thirteenth of the month however, three specimens were brought in and 

 the skeleton of the largest was preserved, a male forty-eight and a half 

 feet long; the Museum is fortunate in securing such a splendid repre- 

 sentative of this aberrant species. As soon as the bones had been cleaned 

 and crated, I chartered a schooner and sent the whale skeletons to Shimo- 

 noseki for trans-shipment to New York. 



This material makes the Museum's collection of large cetaceans the most 

 complete in the world. It lacks only the great " bowhead " of the Arctic 

 and it is to be hoped that funds to secure a skeleton of this extraordinary 

 mammal will soon be forthcoming. 



