62 The Rorquals 



Many times since I have had opportunities of 

 watching, not only the Finback, but other Rorquals 

 in all parts of the world from this well-known habit 

 of theirs of consorting with becalmed vessels, but never 

 better than on that early and well-remembered occa- 

 sion. Yet, strange to say, I have never seen a Rorqual 

 calf, nor have I ever met a whaleman who has. Whether 

 some deep maternal instinct warns the Rorqual cow 

 that at such a time she cannot exercise her normal 

 powers of flight in case of aggression, or what it is, I 

 do not know. But I believe that she does have an 

 instinctive desire to hide herself during the time of 

 nursing, and succeeds in so doing. 



Fortunately for the Rorquals they are far less 

 valuable commercially than any other whale. Their 

 blubber is very thin, their baleen very scanty, and as 

 I have before noted, their strength and agility are such 

 that, except under such conditions as obtain in the 

 fishery of the places I have mentioned, it is almost 

 impossible to kill and secure them. I couple the two 

 terms because the Rorquals almost invariably sink as 

 soon as dead, and in deep water such a habit is fatal 

 to any chance of securing them. A sinking whale 

 cannot be stopped from doing so by any means known 

 or available to whale-fishers. Not only have they 

 these commercial drawbacks, but living advantages, 

 for the resultant oil is exceedingly poor in quality and 

 low in price. 



Yet the thrifty, hard-bitten Norwegians, able to 

 wrench a living from their iron-bound shores where 

 men of lesser endurance, strength, and perseverance 

 must inevitably starve, have devised a way of capturing 

 and making commercial use of the Rorqual. It is 

 brutal and utterly unsportsmanlike, but one cannot 

 consider the claims of sport where hungry mouths are 



