564 



THE WHALES. 



natural courage sometimes awakes, however, and 

 may develop into fierceness, and they defend them- 

 selves with violence and not infrequently with suc- 

 cess, but on the whole they do little harm, even 

 to their most formidable enemy. Their principal 

 weapon is the tail, the enormous force of which can 

 be realized when it is considered that it is the organ 

 which propels the huge body through the waves with 

 the speed of a steamboat. A single blow of the tail 

 suffices to smash the strongest boat to pieces or to 

 hurl it into the air, and to kill a strong animal, or a 

 human being. 



We know very little about the reproduction of the 

 Whalebone Whale; only that the female gives birth 

 to one, or in rare cases two very large young, which 

 have from a third to a fourth of their mother's 

 length and are far progressed in development. The 

 mother suckles them for a very long time, defends 

 them with courage and persistence, hides them under 

 her fins in case of danger, and leads them about until 

 they become independent. 



"Rorquals or jfurroweo Mbales. 



FIRST FAHILY: Bal-enopterid^. 



The Furrowed Whales or Rorquals (BalcenoptcridcB) 

 owe their name to deep, parallel, longitudinal fur- 

 rows, which extend over the throat, breast and part 

 of the abdomen; they are of comparatively slender 

 build, furnished with a distinct dorsal fin and lancet- 

 shaped pectoral fins of variable length, and their 

 baleen plates are short, but wide. 



THE HUMP-BACK WHALES. 



Very long pectoral fins or flippers, which attain at 

 least one-fifth and often one-fourth of the total 

 length, distinguish the Hump-back Whales (Megap- 

 tera). 

 Description of the This genus is represented by the 

 Hump-Back Hump-back of English and Ameri- 

 Whale. can sailors, the Rorghval of Norwe- 



gians and Keporkak of the Greenlanders (Megap- 

 tera longimana). This Whale is widely distributed, 

 occurring in all of the oceans; it is about fifty feet 

 in length; its flippers are about three feet wide and 

 from nine to twelve feet long and the tail fin has a 

 spread of about twelve feet. It is one of the clum- 

 siest members of the family. Compared with other 

 Rorquals it is decidedly ugly, its body being short 

 and thick, its flippers almost disproportionately long 

 and its tail-fin excessively developed. In the last 

 quarter of the total length the back shows a fat-fin, 

 the hump, which may be of very variable shape and 

 formation. The color of the skin is subject to many 

 modifications. A more or less uniform, deep black 

 hue generally prevails on the upper surface, while the 

 lower surface of the body and the flippers is diversi- 

 fied by whitish, marbled markings. 

 Habitat and Habits Few Whalebone Whales are seen 

 of the Hump- oftener or in greater numbers than 

 Bach Whale. the Hump-back, occurring as it 

 does in all latitudes between the equator and the 

 polar oceans of the north and south, in the high seas 

 and near the coast, in .all larger gulfs and bays; and 

 it seems to migrate regularly every year from the 

 poles to the equator. Off the coast of Greenland it 

 is seen only during the summer months, while it is 

 found all the year round off the western coasts of 

 America and Africa, though not in the same places 

 every month. 



Though the profit of a slain Hump-back is not 

 small, it is greatly inferior to that derived from a 

 Sperm Whale or a Greenland Whale, as its blubber 

 yields proportionately far less oil than one would 

 naturally believe. For this reason the Hump-back 

 is molested by whalers only when there is no better 

 to be procured, at least off the Greenland coast. 

 Along the American and African coasts, however, it 

 is pursued, with some regularity and a considerable 

 degree of profit by the coast-dwellers. 



THE RAZORBACK WHALE. 



In Gray's classification the Fin-fish, which is so 

 frequently spoken of and often mistaken for some 

 other of the Rorquals, has only recently been placed 

 in its proper position, and represents a genus {Phy- 

 salus) the special features of which are as follows: 

 the head takes up about a quarter of the total length, 

 the dorsal fin is placed in the last quarter of the 

 middle line; the joints of the flippers are close be- 

 hind the head; the tail-fin is indented in the middle 

 and divided into two more or less distinct flukes. 

 Description, Habi- The Fin-fish or Razorback, called 

 tat and Habits of Sildror in Norway and Tunnolik in 



ihe Razorback. Greenland (Physalus antiquontm) , is 

 one of the slenderest forms among the Whales, and 

 may attain a length of eighty-three feet. The flip- 

 pers are one-tenth as long and one-fiftieth as wide, 

 and the dorsal fin is one-fifth as long as the entire 

 length of the animal. 



The northernmost part of the Atlantic and the 

 Arctic Oceans are the usual haunts of the Razor- 

 back. At the beginning of fall it migrates into more 

 southern waters, and thus it is also met in the seas of 

 the temperate and torrid zone; and is said even to 

 have been found in the Antarctic Ocean. 



As one may conjecture from its slender form, 

 the Fin-fish is rapid and agile in its movements. It 

 is considered one of the swiftest of all Whalebone 

 Whales. In swimming quietly it proceeds in a 

 straight direction and rises very frequently to 

 breathe: every ninety seconds, according to my ob- 

 servation. I could hear the noise made by it in 

 blowing at the distance of one knot. The Razor- 

 back often appears in the immediate proximity of 

 sailing vessels, swims around them, sometimes faith- 

 fully follows them for several hours. 



The food of the Razorback consists principally of 

 fish, which it often drives before it in shoals, and of 

 which it catches great numbers at once in its vast 

 mouth. When it finds an abundance of prey, it 

 remains in one place for days and even weeks, nota- 

 bly off the coast of Greenland, where it devours as- 

 tonishing numbers of Haddock and Codfish, or other 

 fish which assemble in large "schools." 



The Razorback The capture of the Razorback is 

 Difficult of more difficult than that of the Green- 

 Capture. i anc j Whale on account of the great 

 speed and violence of the animal, but the profit 

 derived from its carcass is much less. In compari- 

 son with the Greenland Whale it is considered nearly 

 valueless by the cruising whalers. It is different in 

 those localities where the pursuit may be engaged 

 in from the coast, for in these instances, all parts of 

 the body being put to account, a much higher profit 

 may be derived from it than is possible to accrue 

 to the whalers, as, for instance, off the northern 

 coast of Norway. Kuekenthal says that the value 

 of a large individual of this species is estimated 

 there to amount to $625, of which only $75 repre- 

 sents the value of the short whalebone. 



