Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 171 



the fishery for the oil-and-bone whales shows 

 that the whalers did not always distinguish be- 

 tween the varieties. A table in Whales and 

 Porpoises says that Captain Devot, of New Bed- 

 ford, killed a right whale off Kadiak that yielded 

 290 barrels of oil. Captain Wood took one 

 that gave 280 barrels, while Captain Winston 

 got one of 270 barrels. The average yield of 

 whales taken on the North Pacific ground (The 

 Whale Fishery, p. 17) is or was "about 125 

 barrels each." It is the bowhead whale that 

 raises the average yield to this figure, and it is 

 not unlikely that the enormous yields recorded 

 above were from this variety of the right whale. 

 It is interesting to note that while bowheads 

 yield so much oil, they are never more than sixty- 

 five feet long. The large male right whales 

 are from fifty-two to fifty-three feet long, while 

 the females are from fifty-four to fifty-seven feet 

 long. 



The humpback whale is still smaller. The 

 record yield from one of these was 145 barrels, 

 secured in 1848, from a humpback killed off 

 Monterey, California. 



