REDISCOVERING AN EXTINCT WHALE 



jump which would have brought him fame and for- 

 tune could it have been duplicated at the New York 

 Hippodrome. It is hardly necessary to say that he 

 dropped the bone. In a very short time every Korean 

 in the village knew that a visit to that skeleton gen- 

 erally entailed difficulty in sitting down for several 

 days afterward and the whale was left unmolested. 



On the day of my arrival at Ulsan the four whaling 

 ships which hunted from the station were all lying in 

 the harbor, for the gale had made cruising outside im- 

 possible. As soon as we landed I met my friend, 

 Captain H. G. Melsom of the S. S. Main, one of the 

 best gunners who has ever hunted in the East. Cap- 

 tain Melsom was the first man to learn how to take 

 the devilfish in Korean waters, because for many years 

 the habit of the animals of keeping close inshore 

 among the rocks baffled the whalers. He learned how 

 to trick the clever whales and hang about just outside 

 the breakers ready for a shot w r hen they rose to blow. 

 From Captain Melsom I learned much of the devilfish 

 lore and many evenings on his ship, the Main, did I 

 listen to his stories of w r hales and their ways. 



I shall never forget the intense interest with which 

 I waited for my first sight of a gray whale. On the 

 next day after my arrival at Ulsan I had started 

 across the bay in a sampan to have a look at the 

 village with Mr. Matsumoto, the station paymaster. 

 We had hardly left the shore, when the siren whistle 

 of a whale ship sounded far down the bay and soon 

 the vessel swept around the point into view. At 

 the port bow hung the dark flukes of a whale, the 



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