MODERN FIN- WHALING 181 



another bomb-harpoon was fired into it. Even this did not 

 complete the tragedy, and it required another lance-stroke 

 to finish the gallant little whale. 



Unlike the Balcenoptera which seldom eat fish, the 

 Humpback consumes quantities of the little white fish on its 

 first appearance in northern waters. It is also very partial 

 to the common squid and various small crustaceans. Its 

 principal food, however, is the small crustacean Euphausia 

 inermis^ on which it feeds almost exclusively from June to 

 September. If caplin are encountered and " kril " are 

 absent, it will eat no other food. Herrings do not seem 

 to be a part of the diet.^ 



Like the Finback, this whale usually takes its food side- 

 ways, but Nilsen has seen two in the act of feeding and 

 with mouth open in the usual attitude. 



Humpbacks may be easily recognised at a distance by 

 the form of the "spout." This rises in two separate 

 streams, which are, however, united into one as they ascend 

 and expand. At the top it disperses freely into vapour, 

 and looks larger than that emitted by any of the other 

 species of large whale. It "drifts" out at once into a 

 puffy ball of spray. An apt description by the whale 

 captains is that the "blow" is "like the smoke of a cigar." 

 When moving to windward the respiration dissolves into 

 smoke at once, and almost obscures the animal. In still 

 water it rises to a height of 12 to 15 feet. Scammon says 

 20 feet and more ; but this is, I think, slightly exaggerated. 

 On rising to the surface the number of respirations is ex- 

 ceedingly variable, more so in fact than in any of the larger 



' Sometimes called Thysanopoda inermis. 



^ Mr. Southwell mentions a case of a Humpback Whale which was found dead 

 after indulging too freely on cormorants. A7in. Scot. A'a/. Hist.^ April 1904, p. 86. 



