THE CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE. 
23 
along the sea- shore. The time of gestation is about one year.* Occasionally a 
male is seen in the lagoons with the cows at the last of the season, and soon after 
both male and female, with their young, will be seen working their way northward, 
following the shore so near that they often pass through the kelp near the beach. 
It is seldom they are seen far out at sea. This habit of resorting to shoal bays 
is one in which they differ strikingly from other whales. In summer they congre- 
gate in the Arctic Ocean and Okhotsk Sea. It has been said that this species of 
whale has been found on the coast of China and about the shores of the island 
of Formosa, but the report needs confirmation. 
In October and November the California Grays appear off the coast of Oregon 
and Upper California, on their way back to their tropical haunts, making a quick, 
low spout at long intervals ; showing themselves but very little until they reach the 
smooth lagoons of the lower coast, where, if not disturbed, they gather in large 
numbers,"!" passing and repassing into and out of the estuaries, or slowly raising 
their colossal forms midway above the surface, falling over on their sides as if by 
whether it lived to come to maturity is a matter 
of conjecture. 
* This statement is maintained upon the fol- 
lowing observations : We have known of five 
embryos being taken from females between the 
latitudes of 31° and 37° north, on the California 
coast, when the animals were returning from 
their warm winter haunts to their cool summer 
resorts, and in every instance they were exceed- 
ingly fat, which is quite opposite to the cows 
which have produced and nurtured a calf while 
in the lagoons ; hence we conclude that the an- 
imals propagate only once in two years. 
f It has been estimated, approximately, by 
observing men among the shore -whaling parties, 
that a thousand whales passed southward dai- 
ly, from the 15th of December to the 1st of 
February, for several successive seasons after 
shore - whaling was established, which occurred 
in 1851. Captain Packard, who has been en- 
gaged in the business for over twenty years, 
thinks this a low estimate. Accepting this num- 
ber without allowing for those which passed off 
shore out of sight from the land, or for those 
which passed before the 15th of December and 
after the 1st of February, the aggregate would 
be increased to 47,000. Captain Packard also 
states, that at the present time the average num- 
ber seen from the stations passing daily would 
not exceed forty. From our own observation 
upon the coast, we are inclined to believe that 
the numbers resorting annually to the coast of 
California, from 1853 to 1856, did not exceed 
40,000— probably not over 30,000; and at the 
present time there are many which pass off shore 
at so great a distance as to be invisible from 
the lookout stations : there are probably between 
100 and 200 whales going southward daily, from 
the beginning to the end of the "down season" 
(from December 15th to February 1st). 
This estimate of the annual herd visiting the 
coast is probably not large, as there is no 
allowance made for those that migrate earlier 
and later in the season. From what data we 
have been able to obtain, the whole number of 
California Gray Whales which have been capt- 
ured or destroyed since the bay -whaling com- 
menced, in 1846, would not exceed 10,800, and 
the number which now periodically visit the 
coast does not exceed 8,000 or 10,000. 
