ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE AND RESEARCH 



Antarctic are the warm-blooded killer-whales (Orca), 

 of which we saw a party of three busy gobbling up 

 penguins. I was greatly struck with this ''proto- 

 plasmic cycle" as it may be termed, and indeed on 

 several occasions the explorers themselves were at- 

 tacked by the killer-whales and nearly took a part in 

 the cycle also. The presence of the following rhyme 

 may perhaps be excused in view of the very real biolog- 

 ical concept which is illustrated therein! (Figure 31.) 



I propose to confine my attention primarily to the 

 whales and seals in marine biology, and to the birds on 

 land. All of these animals are, however, only so- 

 journers on the Antarctic shores. None is a true 

 dweller in the Antarctic and none ever ventures inland, 

 except perhaps an aged seal to die. 



I have based my account of the fauna chiefly upon 

 notes taken verbatim from Dr. Wilson, my colleague 

 in the Antarctic, or from his writings. There are two 

 main classes of whales, divided according to whether 

 they are toothed, or provided with baleen (whalebone). 

 To the former class belong the sperm or cachalot 

 (Physeter), the bottlenose, the killer, and porpoise. 

 To the latter the giant rorqual (Balaenopfera) , the 

 right whale {Balcena), and the humpback (Megap- 

 tera). Of the whales the most prominent off the 

 Antarctic coast is the large carnivorous dolphin, the 

 killer- whale or Orca gladiator. It is usually about 

 fifteen feet long and hunts generally in packs of a 

 dozen or more. In a northern specimen, which was 

 twenty-one feet long, the remains of thirteen seals and 

 thirteen porpoises were found in a more or less digested 



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