THE BALEEN WHALES 



147 



THE FAMILY OF BALEEN WHALES. 



Balenidae. 



If seen on land, any member of this Family 

 would recall Falstaff's graphic reference to his 

 own fleshy self, — "A mountain of mummy!" 



In one respect, a large whale is like an iceberg. 

 When seen in the water, only a small fraction of 

 its bulk appears, and the remainder must be 

 imagined. On the ocean, one sees nothing of a 

 whale save a rather flat back, and a jet of dense 

 vapor rising and curving back into the sea. 

 Startling indeed would be the sight of a whale's 

 bulk, if it could be seen in its entirety. 



The largest and also the swiftest of all whales 

 is the great Sulphur-Bottom Whale, 1 of the 

 Pacific Ocean, found from northern California 

 to Central America. So far as we know, this is 

 the largest animal that ever lived upon this 

 planet. Captain C. M. Scammon, one of the 

 most observant and scholarly of all whalers, 

 records the measurements of a specimen taken 

 by him as follows : Total length, 95 feet ; length 

 of jawbone, 21 feet; girth, 39 feet; length of 

 longest " whalebone," 4 feet; weight of "whale- 

 bone," 800 pounds; calculated weight of whole 

 whale, 294,000 pounds; barrels of oil yielded, 

 110 — not a large quantity. 



The accompanying illustration shows the 

 form of a baleen whale, and the peculiar outline 

 of its enormous mouth. The whales of this Fam- 

 ily live upon minute shrimp-like crustaceans, 

 and swimming mollusks (shell-fish) belonging 

 to the group known as pteropods (ter'o-pods) 

 which float in myriads on or near the surface of 

 the sea. To enable the sea-monster to feed upon 

 these very small organisms, and secure them in 

 a wholesale way, the roof of the mouth is pro- 

 vided with two great masses of thin, horny plates 

 set edgewise on each side, and very close together. 

 The lower edges of these plates (of "whale- 

 bone") are frayed out into a mass of what looks 

 like coarse, bristly hair, and these frayed edges 

 unite into a web of filaments as long and as wide 

 as the whole inside of the mouth. 



In feeding, the whale swims through a mass 

 of floating pteropods, with its mouth open ; and 

 the fringe of the baleen, hanging down upon the 

 sides of the lower jaw, forms a perfect strainer 

 for catching even the smallest creatures afloat. 

 1 Bal-ae-nop 'ter-a sul-fu're-us 



The pteropods gather in a mass on the tongue, 

 and presently are swallowed. When the mouth 

 is shut, the plates of baleen fold in diagonally. 



Captain David Gray has stated that some- 

 times the whale finds its food under water, at 

 a depth of from sixty to ninety feet. In gather- 

 ing it the animal dives, holds its breath like any 

 air-breathing animal, and after an interval re- 

 appears at the surface to breathe, swallow the 

 food collected, and rest before diving again. 

 When whales are feeding in this manner, it is 

 comparatively easy for whalers to approach them 

 within striking distance, and harpoon them. 



One of the most astonishing statements re- 

 corded of this animal is that sometimes when 

 harpooned, and sometimes in sport, as well, it 

 leaps out of the water, for practically its entire 

 length! Captain Scammon states that a pair 

 of Sulphur-Bottom Whales have been known 

 to float side by side at the surface of the water, 



BOW-HEAD WHALE. 

 Balacna mysticetus. 



and caress each other by striking each other's 

 bodies with their flippers, "the sound made by 

 these gigantic love-pats being audible for miles." 



The young of a whale is called a "calf," and 

 usually the mother is very solicitous for the wel- 

 fare of her offspring. She suckles it until it is 

 able to seek other food than her milk. 



The Bow-Head Whale, also called Green- 

 land, and Polar Whale^ of the polar seas 

 around the north pole, is known by the immense 

 size of its head and the semicircular arch of its 

 jaws. Its individual plates of baleen are some- 

 times 10 to 12 feet in length. This material is 

 now scraped very fine, and mixed with the silk 

 fibre of dress silks, to make the cloth rustle when 

 worn, and also give it stiffness. It is now of such 

 high value commercially that the baleen whales 

 are being pursued as far north as vessels can go. 

 When a vessel is having a run of luck, and strik- 

 ing Bow-Head Whales frequently, the oil is some- 

 2 Bal-ae'na mys-ti-ce'tus. 



