520 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



a point slightly behind the umbilicus and average around ninety 

 between the pectoral limbs, with again a wide variation. 



On account of its great size, strength, and swiftness, the 

 blue whale was not molested by whalers of earlier generations, 

 whose hand tackle was quite inadequate for its capture, so 

 that the species was known only from occasional individuals 

 that were cast ashore from time to time. Various technical 

 names were based on such individuals, but at the present time 

 the evidence for recognition of more than the single species is 

 insufficient. With the development of more powerful tackle 

 and the application of the whaling gun, shooting a hundred- 

 pound harpoon from the bow of a small steamer, this with the 

 finback whale has become the main object of pursuit by modern 

 whalers. The yield of oil, in spite of the relative thinness of 

 the blubber as compared with that of the right whales, is pro- 

 portionally more than in the finback, up to at least 70 or 80 

 barrels on an average as against 35 to 50 or more for a finback 

 of adult size. Moreover, as with the latter, the oil is adaptable 

 to the hardening process for making margarine, while the 

 glycerine content is high, about 17 percent, so that it is in high 

 demand as an ingredient of the finer grades of glycerine soap 

 as well as of such explosives as nitroglycerine. 



"The introduction of Svend Foyn's harpoon-gun, in 1865, 

 revolutionized whaling, and the invention was made at a time 

 when Right Whales and Sperm Whales were becoming difficult 

 to obtain . . . When Svend Foyn had perfected the har- 

 poon-gun in the latter part of the 'sixties, and had commenced 

 operations in the Varanger Fjord on the Finmark coast of 

 Norway, Blue Whales were the only object of his pursuit. 

 With the entry of new companies, Fin Whales, Humpbacks, 

 and Sei Whales were also caught" (Harmer, 1928). Ere long, 

 however, the blue whales became scarcer and the pursuit 

 shifted to more distant waters. Two whaling stations were 

 started by Russians on the Murman coast, and in the later 

 years of the century others were in operation at Spitsbergen, 

 Iceland, the Faroe and Shetland Islands, and on the coasts of 

 Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia, Japan, and 

 Korea. The blue whale is a species that seems more particu- 

 larly to be found in colder waters, although avoiding for the 

 most part the Arctic seas; yet it occurs also in the Tropics and 

 like other fin whales apparently makes seasonal migrations to 



