4 o8 WHALES AND DOLPHINS 



have been at their wits' end to get rid of the mountain 

 of decaying flesh that was proving a menace to the health 

 of the district. 



The Rorqual is viewed with particular disfavour by fisher- 

 men, for in the stomach of a dead Whale have been found 

 no less than nine hundred codfish. But the Whale piles 

 up injury upon injury. It not only disposes of vast quan- 

 tities of fish that might be put to more profitable use by 

 the toilers of the sea, but calmly swims through thousands 

 of pounds' worth of their tangled nets, while with each gulp 

 it takes in boat-loads of herrings, mackerel, or other kinds of 

 edible fish. Finally, as if it had not worked sufficient mis- 

 chief, it causes the shoal to split up into sections, which seek 

 to escape the visitation in deeper waters further out at sea, 

 leaving the fishermen to bewail the loss of what might have 

 proved to be a golden harvest. 



In the palmy days of whale-hunting the Rorqual was 

 practically unmolested, for not only is the yield of blubber 

 relatively small, and the baleen scanty and poor in quality, 

 but the animal is speedier than the Right Whale, and con- 

 sequently it is far more difficult to kill and secure it. The 

 trouble lies in the latter. Owing to the thinness of its 

 ' blanket ' of blubber a dead Rorqual promptly sinks to the 

 bottom, and no plan of the ordinary whaler could prevent 

 the weight of perhaps two hundred tons or more passing 

 out of his reach. 



The scarcity of the Greenland Whale and the advancing 

 price of baleen, which has a value of about .2,000 a ton, 

 have made the capture of the Rorqual more of a necessity 

 than in former days. Modern ingenuity has robbed the 

 chase of some of its dangers, while increasing the certainty 

 of retaining the capture. The Norwegians, perhaps, make 

 the most commercial use of the Rorqual, and their method 

 will well serve as one example of modern whale-hunting. 



' Small steamers like the "jackal" tug-boats of the 

 Thames are fitted out. In the bows they carry a cannon, 

 designed to fire a massive harpoon, instead of a shot or 

 shell. To the harpoon is attached a stout rope, far stouter 

 than ordinary whale-line, which is one and a half inches in 

 girth. A powerful steam windlass is fitted in the bows also. 



