AMERICAN MUSEUM WHALE COLLECTION 



291 



A fine killer whale {Orca orca) was also 

 obtained at Oshima and later in the year 

 a second killer was taken. 



After shipping the skeletons to New 

 York from Shimonoseki, Japan, the work 

 was continued in the northern part of 

 the country at the little village of 

 Aikawa. Many sejhval were taken here 

 during the summer, giving a splendid 

 opportunity to investigate the species. 



At Aikawa, skeletons of a large fin- 

 back, a sixty-foot sperm whale and ten 

 porpoises were secured. The sperm 

 whale was killed especially for the Mu- 

 seum by Captain Fred Olsen, who did 



his best to secure a large individual. 

 Off the coast of Japan, sperm whales 

 sometimes appear in herds of from 

 twenty or thirty up to five hundred 

 individuals, and when a school is found 

 it is an easy matter for each ship to kill 

 five or six; one of the Japanese gunners 

 even brought in as many as ten at one 

 time. The crate containing the skull 

 alone of the sperm whale which was 

 shipped to the Museum, had a space 

 measurement of twenty-six tons and was 

 of such size that it would barely pass 

 through the hatch of the ocean liner 

 which carried it to New York. 



Cutting in a gray whale, Korea. The body is being divided so that the posterior half may be drawn 

 upon the wharf 



