»;r,s 



NA TURA L HIS TOR Y. 



cultv in separating them, in the accounts of whaling expeditions, from that 

 species. The New Bedford fisheries first exhausted the Atlantic and then 

 turned to the Pacific Ocean, and in 1875 I find records of individuals, taken 

 in the neighborhood of Bering Sea, yielding two hundred and eighty and 

 ninety barrels of oil. The name right-whale means the right kind to kill 

 for whalebone ; for these stand second only to the bow-head in this respect, 

 and formerly that species was included by the whalers under the same 

 common name. 



Fig. 513. — Razor-back whale (Bulsenoptern musculus). 



We have given but a few incidental allusions to the whale-fishery in 

 the preceding pages, because the subject could better be briefly described 

 in one place. Whaling-ships are small vessels of from three to five hun- 

 dred tons' burden, and cany four whale-boats, and a crew, all told, of 

 thirty-five men. Arrived at the whaling-grounds, a constant lookout is 

 kept at the mast-head, and the welcome cry of '-there she blows," "there 

 Bhe breaches," or " there go flukes " sets the whole ship in a flutter of excite- 

 ment. The boats are quickly lowered, a mate taking charge of each, 

 and with him are four of the strongest men in the ship, the one rowing 



