THE SHABP-HEADED FIN NEB WHALE. 51 
frequently gambols about vessels when under way, darting from one side to the 
other beneath their bottoms. When coming to the surface it makes a quick, faint 
spout, such as would be made by a suckling of one of the larger Cetaceans ; which 
plainly accounts for whalemen taking it to be the young of more bulky species. 
At sea the Sharp -headed Finners are seldom seen in pairs, but wander solitarily 
along, frequently changing their course in the depths below, and meandering along 
the whole continental coast of the North Pacific ; occasionally visiting the large 
estuaries about the shores. They pass through Behring Sea and Strait into the 
Arctic Ocean, where they appear to be as much at home as their superiors in size, 
the Bowheads and the California Grays. Like the latter they thread the icy floes, 
and frequently emerge through the narrow fissures bolt upright, with their heads 
above the broken ice, to blow. When roaming about the inland waters of lower 
latitudes, they often shoot along the shallow borders of the bays in search of the 
myriads of small fry on which they mainly sustain themselves. They can not be 
considered as objects of pursuit by whaling vessels, and are but rarely taken by 
the natives of Cape Flattery — they being the only whalers in that region who 
attempt the capture of these animals. 
