26 THE WHALES AND PORPOISES. 



SIZES AND YIELD OF OIL. The following statement of sizes of whales taken by New Bedford 

 vessels, as indicated by their yield of oil, is very instructive. It was furnished by Capt. Benjamin 

 Russell, in 1875. There is no means of distinguishing the bowheads from the Eight Whales: 



Captain Devot took one Eight Whale off Kodiac; made 290 barrels. 



Captain Devot took four Eight Whales off Kodiac; made 920 barrels. 



Captain Clark took one Eight Whale off Kamtchatka; made 180 barrels. 



Captain Wood took one Eight Whale off Kamtchatka; made 230 barrels. 



Captain Eice, of New London, took ten Eight Whales off Kamtchatka; made 700 barrels. 



Captain Winston took one Eight Whale off Kamtchatka; made 270 barrels. 



Captain Winston took two Eight \Vhales off Kamtchatka ; made 480 barrels. 



Captain Spooner took one Eight Whale off Kamtchatka; made 200 barrels. 



Captain Cox took one Eight Whale off Kodiac; made 225 barrels. 



Captain West took two Eight Whales ; made 508 barrels. 



Captain West took thirteen Eight Whales; made 1,780 barrels. 



Captain Wood took one Eight Whale; made 280 barrels. 



A number of captains report one each, from 80 to 200 barrels. 



12. THE HUMPBACK WHALES. 



DISTRIBUTION. The Humpback Whales, also often called Bunch Whales by Europeans, occur 

 in both Atlantic and Pacific. Captain Eoss saw them as far south as latitude 71 50'. In the 

 Pacific they range to the Arctic Circle, and there is reason to believe that they occur also about 

 Greenland. Our Atlantic species is Meyaptera osphyui Cope, that of the California region M. vcr- 

 sabilis. As usual, the inquirer must go to Scammon for accurate observations, little being known 

 about the species of the Atlantic. 



MIGRATIONS. They appear to resort periodically, and with some degree of regularity, to cer- 

 tain localities where the females bring. forth their young. Scammou found them breeding in July 

 and August, 1852 and 1853, in the Gulf of Guayaquil, Peru; in December in the Bay of Valle do 

 Banderas, Mexico, latitude 20 30'; and in May, 1855, at Magdaleua Bay, Lower California, lati- 

 tude 24 30'. Captain Beckennan observed them at Tongataboo, Friendly Group, latitude 21 south, 

 longitude 174 west, in August and September. Large numbers of both sexes migrate north in 

 summer and south in winter. 



SIZE. They attain the length of twenty-five to seventy-five feet, and yield from eight to 

 seventy-five barrels of oil. The largest taken in 1871 by Captain Beckerman was seventy-five 

 feet long, and produced seventy-three barrels, but the average yield was forty barrels, including 

 the entrail fat, which amounted to about six barrels. One taken off the bay of Monterey, in 1858, 

 yielded 145 barrels. 



The blubber, according to Bennett, is yellowish-white, five to fifteen inches thick, and the oil is 

 said to be better than that of the right whale. 



The baleen possesses a moderate commercial value. In a specimen fifty-two feet long, Scam- 

 mon records 540 laminae, the longest two feet eight inches long and nine inches broad, and elsewhere 

 lie estimates its yield at 400 pounds to 100 barrels of oil. 1 



FOOD. Their food consists of fish and crustaceans scooped up at the surface. When feed- 

 ing they are most easily captured. The time and place of breeding have already been spoken 

 of. "In the mating season," writes Scammon, "they are noted for their amorous antics. At such 

 times their caresses are of the most amusing and novel character, and these performances have 

 doubtless given rise to the fabulous tales of the swordfish and thrashers attacking whales. When 



'SCAMMON: of. cit., jip. 40, 41. 



