THE HUMF-BACK WHALE. 361 



the ocean, and attains a length of sixty to eighty feet, with fins measuring 

 from twelve to twenty feet. The body is thick and clumsy, the front 

 part, especially on the lower surface — for the pecuharit}' is not so 

 noticeable on the back — being extraordinarily protuberant, the hinder 

 part at the tail being remarkably contracted. The under jaw is longer 

 and broader than the upper. On the last quarter of the body is founds 

 with various modifications and developments, a mass of blubber forming 

 a hump, a foot or so in height, and about the size of a man's head. 

 From the under-jaw there run along the throat and breast as far as the 

 pectoral fin- broad folds varying in number from eighteen to twenty-six, 

 which are supposed to enable the creature to dilate its maw at pleasure. 

 The skin is smooth, and is usually of a more or less uniform black on the 

 back, while the under surface of the body and the pectoral fins are of a 

 whitish color : some specimens are simply black above and white below, 

 others all black, others black above, white below, with the pectoral and 

 tail fins of a dark ash-gray hue. 



The Humpback or Bunched Whale is very .ommon, and seems to 

 migrate annually from the Poles to the South, C'jming southward about 

 September, and returning to the Arctic seas in spring. Off the coast of 

 Upper California they are seen rarely between April and December, but 

 on the coast of Greenland they are found only in summer. On the west 

 coast of America they are seen all the year, but not every month at the 

 same places. The movements of this whale are very irregular ; it seldom 

 swims any great distance in one direction ; it stops here and there for 

 longer ur shorter intervals, and changes its course. At times the Hump- 

 backs appear in numerous companies which cover the sea as far as the 

 eye can reach, at other times they appear solitary, yet in this latter case 

 they indulge in all the play, and all the attitudes of the tribe, as if they 

 were surrounded by hundreds of their fellows. Even when swimming 

 under water, they rock themselves from side to side. When they 

 breathe, they blow in quick succession six to twenty times, sending up 

 spouts of various degrees of strength from six to eighteen feet in height. 

 Their food consists exclusively of small fishes and molluscs. 



The Humpwhales are almost entirely neglected by the fishers, as their 

 blubber furnishes much less oil than the Greenland or Sperm Whales. 

 Of like quantities of blubber taken from Humpback and Greenland 

 Whales respectively, the former will give eighteen, the latter sixty 

 barrels of oil. Hence they are never chased when anything better can 

 46 



