5*8 



THE RORQUAL. 



nected the Whale with the boat. Making directly for a neighboring ice-field, the Ror- 

 qual shot under it, and drew the boat with all its crew beneath the ice, where they dis- 

 appeared forever from the gaze of mankind. 



Mr. Scoresby, desiring to secure one of these powerful animals, made preparations for 

 the chase by employing very short lines, only two hundred fathoms in length, and attach- 

 ing a buoy to their extremities in order to tire out the creature by the resistance which 

 the buoy would offer to the water through which they would be dragged by the Whale. 



Two Rorquals were struck, and in both cases the intended victims escaped. In the 

 first instance, the Whale dived with such impetuous speed that the line snapped by the 

 resistance of the buoy against the surface of the water, and in the second case the line 

 only held together for a single minute, and was severed apparently by friction against 

 the dorsal fin. A third Rorqual was afterwards harpooned through the error of the 

 seamen, who mistook it for a Greenland Whale. As soon as it felt the sting of the 

 harpoon, the animal dived with such rapidity that it carried nearly three thousand 

 feet of line out of the boat in about a minute of time, and escaped by snapping the 

 rope. 



RORQUAL. Physalus Bolps. 



Not contenting itself with such mode of escape, the Rorqual will often turn fiercely 

 upon the boats, and avenge itself by dashing them to pieces by repeated strokes of its 

 fearful tail. 



These belligerent qualities would make the whalers very cautious in dealing with such 

 formidable foes, even if their capture were attended with profit equal to the bulk of 

 their prey. But as it is found that the Rorqual is almost valueless when killed, the 

 whalers permit it to pass unmolested, and turn their attention to more valuable quarry. 

 The layer of blubber which encompasses the Rorqual is only about six or eight inches 

 in thickness, and is very chary in yielding oil, a large Whale only furnishing at the best 

 ten or fifteen tons, and sometimes scarcely a single ton of this valuable substance. 



As the head of the Rorqual is not nearly so much arched as that of the Mysticetus, and 

 the capacity of the mouth is more owing to the huge pouch of the lower jaws than to the 

 form of the upper jaw, the baleen, or whalebone, is very short, scarcely reaching four 

 feet in length. Even if its quality had been good, it would be of comparatively little 



