WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



cious and sometimes turn furiously upon the boats 

 when struck with an iron. 



The "devilfish," or California gray whale, had a 

 bad reputation among the whalers of fifty years ago, 

 for when attacked upon its breeding grounds it is said 

 to have fought fiercely for the protection of its young. 

 Under such circumstances its actions would undoubt- 

 edly be very different from what I have observed when 

 gray whales were killed near Korea, where we had no 

 more trouble than with other species. 



At sea it is often impossible to distinguish the blue 

 and finback whales by the way they blow. The col- 

 umns of vapor are much alike under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, except that the spout of the blue whale is 

 usually somewhat higher than is the finback's. How- 

 ever, much depends upon the size of the animal, since 

 a large finback will often blow as strongly as a small 

 blue whale. But if not far away the blue whale may 

 be easily known by the light gray-blue color of its 

 body, for it contrasts strongly with the dark slate 

 upper parts of the finback which, when dripping with 

 water, often look almost purplish. The Norwegian 

 name blahval was given to the greatest of all living 

 creatures because of the distinctly bluish color of its 

 body. The Newfoundland and American whalemen 

 call the animal "sulphur-bottom," a most inappropriate 

 name, for there is no suggestion of yellow on its body. 

 The Japanese know it as shiro-nagasu (the white 

 finback). 



The diving movements of the two species are also 

 similar except that in rare instances a blue whale will 



178 



