THE RORQUAL. 529 



value. Yet it is so coarse and " unkindly " that it is almost valueless for manufactur- 

 ing purposes. Whalers would rejoice if this substance were of more value, as it is 

 extremely plentiful in the Rorqual, the jaws being lined with five thousand distinct 

 plates t>r " slabs " of baleen. 



As the food of the Rorqual is not limited to the small animals which constitute the 

 diet of the Greenland Whales, but consists also of various fish, it needs that the gullet 

 should be larger than in that creature. In the stomach of a single Rorqual, six hundred 

 large cod-fish have been found, together with a considerable number of pilchards. In 

 order to procure a sufficiency of food for its vast bulk, the Rorqual often follows the 

 shoals of migrating fish until it approaches the shores of Great Britain, where in many 

 cases it prefers to take up its abode, hovering round the fishing-grounds, and swallow- 

 ing whole boat-loads of herrings, pilchards, and other fish. One of these creatures 

 haunted the Frith of Forth for a period of twenty years, and was popularly recognized 

 under the title of the " hollie-pike," on account of a hole through its dorsal fin which 

 had been perforated with a musket-ball. 



Although the Rorqual may for a time support itself at the cost of our fishing-trade, it 

 is nearly sure to fall a victim to its own temerity, and to be left by the returning tide, 

 helplessly and ignominiously stranded on the shores. This is a season of great rejoic- 

 ing among the fishermen, who flock to the fatal spot with their most deadly weapons, 

 and avenge themselves of their losses by the slaughter of the giant robber. Even the 

 ** hollie-pike " himself fell a victim to his want of caution, and was at length stranded on 



SKELETON OF RORQUAL. 



the shores of the very bay which he had haunted for so many consecutive years. The 

 length of this animal was seventy-five feet. 



Owing to the persevering manner in which the Rorqual follows its prey to our coasts, 

 it is more frequently stranded upon the British shores than any other true W'hale. One 

 of these animals that was thus captured was ninety-five feet in length, and weighed two 

 hundred and forty-nine tons. Its breadth was eighteen feet, the length of the head 

 twenty-two feet. Each fin measured twelve feet six inches in length. The skeleton of 

 this magnificent animal was preserved and mounted, and after the bones were dry, their 

 united weight amounted to thirty-five tons. To procure the skeleton of so large an 

 animal is no easy matter, for the preparation of a Rorqual that was only eighty-three 

 feet in length occupied a space of three years. 



The Laplanders, who find the bones and other portions of this animal to be of great 

 service to them, unite in its chase, and employ a very simple mode of action. To 

 harpoon such a being would be useless, so they content themselves with inflicting as 

 many wounds as possible and leaving it to die. After the lapse of a few days the huge 

 carcass is generally found dead upon the strand, and becomes the property of all those 

 who have wounded it and can prove their claims by the weapons which are found in 

 its body. The person who finds the stranded carcass is by law entitled to one-third 

 of the value. 



34 



