142 WHALES AND PORPOISES 



Bottom Whales have been known to float side by side at the 

 surface of the water, and caress each other by striking each 

 other's bodies with their flippers, "the sound made by these 

 gigantic love-pats being audible for miles." 



The young of a whale is called a "calf," and usually the 

 mother is very solicitous for the welfare of her offspring. 

 She suckles it until it is able to seek other food than her milk. 



THE BOW-HEAD WHALE, also called GREENLAND, and 

 POLAR WHALE,* of the north polar seas, is known by the im- 

 mense size of its head and the semicircular arch of its jaws. 

 Its individual plates of baleen are sometimes 10 to 12 feet in 

 length. This material is now scraped very fine, and mixed 

 with the silk fibre of dress silks in order to make the cloth 

 rustle when worn, and also to give it stiffness. It is now of 

 such high value commercially that the baleen whales are 

 being pursued as far north as vessels can go. When a vessel 

 is having a run of luck and is striking Bow-Head Whales fre- 

 quently, the oil is sometimes completely ignored, and the 

 quest settles down to a hunt for whalebone alone. 



Whale oil is no longer the valuable commodity it was 

 fifty and more years ago, but the hunt for baleen will ulti- 

 mately exterminate all the whales of this Family. The Bow- 

 Head Whale is of medium size, rarely attaining 65 feet, and 

 usually runs under 50; yet it is uncommonly rich, both in 

 baleen and oil. A large whale of this species is said to yield 

 275 barrels of oil, and 3,500 pounds of whalebone. 



On the coast of Newfoundland there are now five whaling 

 stations which during the summer season do a thriving busi- 



1 Bal-ae'na mys-ti-ce'tus. 



