WHEN WHALES ARE HARPOONED 143 



ness. Small whales of two or three species are killed in 

 adjacent waters, towed to the stations, and hauled up on 

 ways. In a single day a whale forty feet long is completely 

 worked up, and practically every part of the animal yields 

 a commercially valuable product. 



When a whale is struck by a harpoon, it dives deeply to 

 escape its foes, and remains under water as long as possible. 



BOW-HEAD WHALE. 



Balaena mysticetus. 



The comfortable period for a whale to remain under water 

 is fifteen minutes, but in feeding below the surface, this is 

 often extended to twenty -five minutes. Harpooned whales 

 sometimes descend 300 feet and lie on the muddy bottom of 

 a shallow sea for a period of from fifty minutes to an hour 

 and twenty minutes. 



But whalers know that their victim must sooner or later 

 come to the surface or drown. As a whale reaches the sur- 

 face, it immediately discharges its breath from the blow- 

 holes situated on top of its head. A whale does not spout 

 water, but the breath which comes from its lungs is so heavily 

 laden with moisture that at a little distance it looks like water, 



