THE RORQUAL WEALS. 429 



id.- Ixiat-, .,11.1 avellp- it-elf l>\ d:i-liin.: llu-lii t.. pltMi l'\ l-j-al.-.l ifcnhM "f Mi 



These In-inherent qualities would make the whalers very cautious in dealing with nurh 

 formidable foes, even if their nip tare WWB attended with profit equal to the Imlk <>f their pray. 

 Hut :i- it i- found that tin- Rorqual is almost valin-l.^s when killed, tin- whaler- jM-nnit it to 

 pass unmolested, and tuni their attention to more valuable quarry. The layer of blubber 

 which encompasses tin- Rorqual is only about six or eight inches in thieklMM, and is very 

 chars in \ ieldini: oil. a large \Vli:ile only furnishing at the ln-st ten or fifteen tons, and soim- 

 times scarcely a single ton of this valuable substance. 



A- id,. h,.;i,l ,.f id.- l,'..|.|n:il i- not nearh - nun ii an li- : .1- that "f tin- Mysticetus. and 

 the capacity of the mouth is more owing to the huge pourh of the lower jaws than to the form 

 of the upiier jaw, the baleen, or whalebone, is necessarily very short, m-arcely teaching four 

 feet in length. Kven if its quality had been good, it would be of comparatively little 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 jaw- !> iiiir lined with five thousand distinct plates or "slabs".of baleen. 



As the food of the lionpial 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 



SEXLITON OF RORQUAL. 



larger than in that nvatnre. 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 

 sufficiency of food for its vast bulk, the Rorqual often follows the shoals of migrating fish until 

 it approaches the shores, where in many cases it prefers to take up its alxide. hovering round 

 the fishing-grounds, and swallowing whole boat-loads of herrings, pilchards, and other fish. 



Although the Rorqual may for a time support itself at the cost of our fishing t ra< !-. it is 

 nearly sure to fall a victim to its own temerity, and to be left by the returning tide, helple ly 

 and ignominioii-ly stranded on the shores. This is a season of great rejoicing amon^r 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 fella 

 victim to his want of caution, and was at length stranded on the 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 onr coasts, it is 

 more frequently stranded upon the British shores than any other true Whale. One of these 

 animals that was tlm- <-aptnre<l was ninety -five (Wt 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 f.-et MX inches in length. The skeleton of this magnificent animal was 

 preserved and mounted, and after the bones were dry, their uniti-<l weight amount**! to thirty- 

 th 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 spa<-,- of three years. 



The Laplanders, who find the bones and other portions of thi* 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. *, they content themselves with inflicting a> many wound- as 

 INI iMe and leaving it to die. After the lapse of a few days the huge carcase is generally 

 found dead upon the strand, and Ufomes the property of all those who ha.ve wounded it and 



