CHAPTER XVII 

 SOME HABITS OF THE GRAY WHALE 



ALTHOUGH the stomachs of a great number 

 of gray whales were carefully examined, I 

 could never discover what constitutes their 

 food, and no one else seems to have had better suc- 

 cess. In every case the stomach was more or less 

 filled with dark green water in which the only solid 

 materials were bits of kelp, a little seaweed, and small 

 masses of light green gelatinous material. 



The stomachs of two individuals contained a num- 

 ber of waterworn pebbles and several small pieces of 

 what appeared to be finely shredded flesh still con- 

 nected by its fibers; this certainly was not fish. It 

 is probable that the kelp, seaweed, and pebbles had 

 been taken in with other material and were not swal- 

 lowed intentionally. 



All the gunners assert that when the gray whales 

 appear at Ulsan on their migrations they are invari- 

 ably traveling straight ahead and apparently not stop- 

 ping to feed. This information, combined with the 

 fact that little except water could be found in the 

 stomachs, lends strong support to the theory that 

 when upon their annual migrations the devilfish do not 

 feed at all, and during the winter draw for nourish- 

 ment upon the fat of their thick blubber. This is true 



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