WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



until later in the year among some individuals, as 

 foetal specimens show. Pregnant females always have 

 very thick, fat blubber and yield a large amount of 

 oil. Except in very rare cases all the large whales 

 have but one young at a birth and although several 

 instances of humpback twins have been recorded it 

 is certainly very unusual. 



How long the calf lives upon milk is problematical, 

 but it can hardly be more than six months. The rate 

 of growth of large whales is so exceedingly rapid 

 that the calf would undoubtedly be able to care for 

 itself very soon after birth. 



The two teats of all cetaceans are concealed in slits 

 on either side of the genital opening. In a hump- 

 back whale each teat is the thickness of a man's 

 thumb and two inches long. In the female hump- 

 back taken at Sechart with the nursing calf, the milk 

 glands under the blubber had become greatly en- 

 larged and were like an elongated oval in shape; they 

 were 4 feet 6 inches long, 42 inches wide at the lower, 

 and 9 inches at the upper, end. 



By suddenly pressing the surrounding muscles the 

 milk could be ejected 2 or 3 feet in a fair sized stream 

 and it is in this way that the calf probably receives 

 it. The young whale's mouth is so constructed that 

 it is impossible for the animal to suck, in the ordi- 

 nary sense of the word, and the teat is much too 

 short, even when protruded two or three inches, to 

 be held between the thick, rounded lips. When the 

 milk is ejected into the calf's mouth apparently con- 

 siderable sea water must go with it unless the mother 



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