

NORTH ATLANTIC' RIGHT WHALE. 171 



Two Right Whales captured off Provincetown about the 20th of May, 1888, yielded to- 

 gether about 170 barrels of oil, an average of 85 (Nantucket Journal, vol. 10, no. 35, May 31, 

 1888). 



A Right Whale killed off Nantucket in April, 1886, is said to have yielded about forty 

 barrels of oil and G50 pounds of whalebone. The total yield from this and two others of about 

 the same size, taken at this time, was about 125 barrels of oil and 1500 pounds of "whalebone 

 (Nantucket Journal, vol. 8, no. 31, Apl. 29, 1886; no. 32, May 6, 1886). 



An unusually large and fat cow Right Whale, accompanied by a calf, was killed off Cape 

 Cod about the first of June, 1888, and was estimated to yield about 100 barrels of oil and 1500 

 pounds of whalebone, worth at that time between $3000 and $4000 (Nantucket Journal, vol. 10, 

 no. 36, June 7, 1888). The Right Whale, taken off Plymouth, Mass., in April, 1864, whose 

 mounted skeleton is preserved in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, yielded eighty barrels 

 and fourteen gallons of oil which was sold for $1.14 per gallon. The baleen taken from it 

 weighed 1001 pounds and sold for $1.00 a pound. 



According to Douglass ' they "do yield not exceeding 120 to 130 barrels oil, and 9 feet bone 

 140 II). \vt." The Arctic Bowhead Whale yields from 400 to 500 barrels of oil. 



Dr. F. W. True (1904) quotes the following from O'Callaghan's Documents relating to 

 the Colonial History of New York, taken from a letter dated July 1, 1708, and addressed to 

 the Lords of Trade by one Lord Cornbury: "a Yearling will make about forty Barrels of Oyl, 

 a Stunt or Whale of two years old will make sometimes fifty, sometimes Sixty Barrils of Oyl, 

 and the largest whale that I have heard of in these Parts, yielded one hundred and ten barrils 

 of Oyl, and twelve hundred Weight of bone." 



Paul Dudley, in his essay on the whales of New England, records that "one of these Whales 

 has yielded One hundred and thirty Barrels of Oil, and near twenty out of the Tongue." 



C'ollett states that four whales of this species yielded a ton of whalebone worth (in 1909) 

 about $7500, and that the weight of baleen in a full grown specimen is from 250 to 330 kilograms 

 (551 to 668 pounds). 



The Right Whale usually floats, nearly awash, when dead, so that it is not so difficult a 

 matter to tow it ashore when captured at sea. This, however, is not always the case, depending 

 doubtless on the condition of the whale, whether there is less than the normal amount of 

 blubber in proportion to the flesh and bone to decrease the specific gravity of its body to less 

 than that of sea water. A "thirty-barrel" Right Whale (and hence comparatively lean for 

 this species) was struck off Nantucket in April, 1886, and after a short struggle, was dispatched. 

 It was no sooner dead, however, when it "rolled over and sank in eleven fathoms of water" so 



1 Douglass, W. A. A Summary, historical and political, of the first planting, progressive improvement, and present 

 .^t:itc of the British settlements in North America, 1755, vol. 1, p. 56. 

 1 Documents relative to Colonial Hist. N. Y., 1855, vol. 5, p. 60. 



