THE RORQUAL. 529 
value. Yet it is so coarse and “unkindly” that it is almost valueless for manufacturing 
purposes. Whalers would rejoice if this substance were of more value, as it is extremely 
plentiful in the Rorqual, the jaws being lined with five thousand distinct plates or 
“slabs” of baleen. 
As the food of the Rorqual is not limited to the small animals which constitute the 
diet of the Greenland Whales, but consists also of various fish, it needs that the gullet 
should be larger than in that creature. In the stomach of a single Rorqual, six hundred 
large cod-fish have been found, together with a considerable number of pilchards. In 
order to procure a sutticiency of food for its vast bulk, the Rorqual often follows the shoals 
of migrating fish until it approaches the shores of Great Britain, where in many cases it 
prefers to take up its abode, hovering round the fishing-grounds, and swallowing whole boat- 
loads of herrings, pilchards, and other fish. One of these creatures haunted the Frith of 
Forth for a period of twenty years, and was popularly recognised under the title of 
the “hollie-pike,” on account of a hole through its dorsal fin which had been perforated 
with a musket-ball. 
Although the Rorqual may for a time support itself at the cost of our fishing-trade, it 
is nearly sure to fall a victim to its own temerity, and to be left by the returning tide, 
helplessly and ignominiously stranded on the shores. This is a season of great rejoicing 
among the fishermen, who flock to the fatal spot with their most deadly weapons, and 
avenge themselves of their losses by the slaughter of the giant robber. Even the “ hollie- 
pike” himself fell a victim to his want of caution, and was at length stranded on the 
SKELETON OF RORQUAL. 
shores of the very bay which he had haunted for so many consecutive years. The length 
of this animal was seventy-five feet. 
Owing to the persevering manner in which the Rorqual follows its prey to our coasts, 
it is more frequently stranded upon the British shores than any other true Whale. One 
of these animals that was thus captured was ninety-five feet in length, and weighed two 
hundred and forty-nine tons. Its breadth was eighteen feet, the length of the head 
twenty-two feet. Each fin measured twelve feet six inches in length. The skeleton of this 
magnificent animal was preserved and mounted, and after the bones were dry, their 
united weight amounted to thirty-five tons. To procure the skeleton of so large an 
animal is no easy matter, for the preparation of a Rorqual that was only eighty-three 
feet in length occupied a space of three years. 
The Laplanders, who find the bones and other portions of this animal to be of great 
service to them, unite in its chase, and employ a very simple mode of action. To 
harpoon such a being would be useless, so they content themselves with inflicting as 
many wounds as possible and leaving it to die. After the lapse of a few days the huge 
carcass is generally found dead upon the strand, and becomes the property of all those 
who have wounded it and can prove their claims by the weapons which are found in 
its body. The person who finds the stranded carcass is by law entitled to one-third 
of the value. 
i MM 
