250 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 
Humpbacks, and California Grays ; but occasionally a Right Whale, a Finback, or a 
Sulphurbottom is captured. 
The localities of several of the stations are quite picturesque. Some of them 
are nearly concealed from seaward view, being inside some rocky reef, or behind a 
jagged point, with its outlying rocks, upon which each successive wave dashes its 
foam, as if forbidding the approach of ship or boat. The one which most inter- 
ested us is half- hidden in a little nook, on the southern border of the Bay of 
Carmel, just south of Point Pinos. Scattered around the foot-hills, which come to 
the water's edge, are the neatly whitewashed cabins of the whalers, nearly all of 
whom are Portuguese, from the Azores or "Western Islands of the Atlantic. They 
have their families with them, and keep a pig, sheep, goat, or cow, prowling 
around the premises; these, with a small garden-patch, yielding principally corn 
and pumpkins, make up the general picture of the hamlet, which is a paradise to 
the thrifty clan in comparison with the homes of their childhood. It is a pleasant 
retreat from the rough voyages experienced on board the whale -ship. The sur- 
rounding natural scenery is broken into majestic spurs and peaks, like their own 
native isles, with the valley of the Rio Carmel a little beyond, expanded into 
landscape loveliness. 
Under a precipitous bluff, close to the water's edge, is the station ; where, 
upon a stone -laid quay, is erected the whole establishment for cutting- in and 
trying- out the blubber of the whales. Instead of rolling them upon the 
beach, as is usually done, the cutting- tackles are suspended from an elevated beam, 
whereby the carcass is rolled over in the water — when undergoing the process of 
flensing — in a manner similar to that alongside a ship. Near by are the try- 
works, sending forth volumes of thick, black smoke from the scrap -fire under the 
steaming cauldrons of boiling oil. A little to one side is the primitive store- 
house, covered with cypress boughs. Boats are hanging from davits, some resting on 
the quay, while others, fully equipped, swing at their moorings in the bay. Sea- 
ward, on the crest of a cone-shaped hill, stands the signal -pole of the lookout 
station. Add to this the cutting at the shapeless and half- putrid mass of a muti- 
lated whale, together with the men shouting and heaving on the capstans, the 
screaming of gulls and other sea -fowl, mingled with the noise of the surf about 
the shores, and we have a picture of the general life at a California coast -whaling 
station. 
The aggregate amount of oil taken by the several shore parties, since their 
first establishment, may be estimated at not less than 95,000 barrels ; of this 
amount, 75,600 barrels have been obtained from the California Gray Whales, and 
