WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



of the fur seal during the breeding season, and of 

 other water mammals. When the male fur seals ar- 

 rive upon the "rookeries" at the Pribilof Islands to 

 await the coming of the females, their bodies are cov- 

 ered with layer upon layer of fat. During the fol- 

 lowing four months the bulls do not leave the land 

 and neither eat, drink nor sleep while they guard their 

 harems, subsisting upon the fat which has been stored 

 up on their bodies. When the animals leave in the fall 

 to spend the winter at sea, they have become so thin 

 through their self -en forced fasting that they are mere 

 skeletons of their former well-fed selves. 



Scammon says that in the spring the blubber of 

 the devilfish is dry and yields but comparatively little 

 oil, as would be the case if the animals had fasted 

 during the winter. I have no personal information as 

 to this because in Korea these whales are not killed 

 on their northward migrations. So many other and 

 more valuable species can be taken during the spring 

 that the devilfish are allowed to depart unmolested. 

 If they do feed while on their migrations, the food in 

 their stomachs would certainly have been discovered 

 when the animals were cut in at the stations. 



The male devilfish at all times shows strong affec- 

 tion for the female, and when a school of males, led 

 by one or two females, is found, if one of the latter is 

 wounded, often the bulls refuse to leave until the cow 

 is dead. 



Captain Melsom tells me that while hunting a pair 

 of devilfish near Ulsan he shot the female, and the 

 male would not leave his dead consort, keeping close 



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