Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 167 



The food of the right whale consists of a variety 

 of small animals that float in wide masses on the 

 sea, crustaceans "not larger than a common 

 house fly," called "brit" by the whalers. When 

 the whale wishes to feed, it swims to and fro 

 with its mouth open through the floating brit. 

 Water and brit together float into and through 

 the unobstructed forward part of the mouth. The 

 water then flows out through the whalebone 

 sieves on each side of the mouth, while the brit 

 is caught by the sieves. 



"The usual way in which a whale feeds," 

 wrote Captain Gray, "is to choose a spot where 

 the food is plentiful and swim backward and 

 forward for two or three hundred yards with 

 the nose just under water. They invariably 

 swim from one side of the beat back again to 

 where they started from, with their mouths open. 

 Then they close their jaws and swallow the food 

 caught." After the mouth is closed the tongue 

 is raised and the remaining water is forced out, 

 leaving the crustaceans caught on the screen. 

 "They often go with the point of the nose so 

 near the surface that we can see the water running 



