Pacific blackflsh {Globiocephalus scammoni). This is a very rare species and practically nothing 

 has been known hitherto of its external characteristics 



server. These specimens were nearly 

 always in a more or less advanced state 

 of decomposition and badly bloated by 

 gases so that little of their true form 

 remained. All Cetaceans change color 

 very rapidly after death and unless the 

 animal is seen before it has been exposed 

 to the air, accurate descriptions of its 

 color in life cannot be obtained. For 

 instance, the Atlantic finback for many 

 years has been described as "black" 

 although it is never black in life. 



When the work of the Vancouver 

 Island stations was finished I went 

 northward to study finbacks at Tyee, 

 on Admiralty Island, Alaska, for at the 

 southern stations only humpback, blue 

 and sperm whales had been taken. 



I came back to New York in the fall 

 with much information about the Pacific 

 whales and an intense desire to continue 

 the work. An opportunity soon pre- 

 sented itself and the following June 



284 



I went to Quebec to study and collect the 

 beautiful "white whale," the marsouin 

 hlanc of the French dwellers along the St. 

 Lawrence River. Although this species 

 is a true ice porpoise and is never found 

 where the water is far above the freezing 

 point, yet early in the spring the animals 

 come into the St. Lawrence River by 

 thousands, their white bodies looking 

 more like foamy wave crests than things 

 of life. They are hunted for their skins 

 which give the "porpoise hide" of 

 commerce, each animal being worth 

 about seven dollars. 



The whales were killed by first shoot- 

 ing them with a heavy musket as they 

 rose to blow, then paddling up in a small 

 canoe and throwing a harpoon as they 

 thrashed their white lengths about 

 upon the water. The first whale we 

 killed was a full-grown male absolutely 

 pure white, except for a narrow grayish 

 edging on the flukes and fins. It was 



