CHAPTER VI 

 JAPANESE SHORE STATIONS 



IN the summer of 1909, after a short expedition to 

 the St. Lawrence River to hunt white porpoises, 

 I joined the U. S. S. Albatross in the Philip- 

 pines as a special naturalist for a cruise among the 

 islands of the Dutch East Indies. 



It was an exceedingly interesting trip, but even 

 though sailing over ground where thousands of sperm 

 whales had been killed in years gone by, not a spout 

 was seen. We raised our first whales at the south- 

 ern end of Formosa late in January, while steaming 

 northward to Japan. They were two humpbacks, 

 lazily rolling about in a deep bay where we had an- 

 chored to escape a typhoon which was roaring along 

 the coast outside, and showed us that we were on 

 the edge of the Japan whaling banks, famous among 

 all deep-water sailors. 



In February the Albatross reached the beautiful 

 harbor of Nagasaki and while wandering about the 

 streets of the picturesque little city I saw great quan- 

 tities of whale meat on sale in the markets. Ped- 

 dlers were also doing an excellent business in selling 

 meat and blubber from house to house, and alto- 

 gether Japanese whaling appeared to be in a flourish- 

 ing condition. 



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