WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



known of a whale breaching so close to a ship, al- 

 though they have frequently come out within a hun- 

 dred and fifty feet. 



A few days later we had sighted a lone bull hump- 

 back early in the afternoon and for two hours had 

 been doing our utmost to get a shot. The whale 

 seemed to know exactly how far the gun was effec- 

 tive and would invariably rise just out of range. Once 

 he sounded forty fathoms ahead and, as I stood wait- 

 ing near the gun platform with the camera ready, 

 suddenly the water parted directly in front of us and 

 with a rush which sent its huge body five feet clear 

 of the surface the whale shot into the air, fins wide 

 spread, and fell back on its side amid a cloud of 

 spray. 



I was watching for the animal on the starboard 

 bow but managed to swing about with the camera 

 and press the button just before he disappeared. Al- 

 though the photograph was hardly successful, never- 

 theless it is interesting as being the only one yet taken 

 of a breaching humpback; it shows the whale breast 

 forward falling upon its right side. 



Humpbacks probably breach in play and sometimes 

 an entire school will throw their forty-five-foot bodies 

 into the air, each one apparently trying to outdo the 

 others. For some reason the humpbacks of Alaska 

 and the Pacific coast seem to breach much more fre- 

 quently than do those in Japan waters. 



This species is the most playful of all the large 

 whales one of the reasons why to me they are the 

 most interesting. Breaching is probably their most 



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