THE BOWHBAD: SIZE, USES. 



21 



Reprodxjction. — The time and place of breeding are not certainly known, but it is suj^posed 

 that the young are born in the inaccessible parts of the Arctic Ocean. In Tchantar Bay are found 

 small whales called " Poggys," which resemble the Bowhead, and are by many believed to be their 

 young. 



The Bowheads of the Arctic are classed by Scammon as follows : (1) the largest whales of a 

 brown color, average yield of oil 200 barrels; (2) smaller, color black, yield 100 barrels; (3) small- 

 est, color black, yield 75 barrels, and to these should perhaps be added (4) the " poggy," yield 20 to 

 25 barrels. Those of the third class are generally found early in the season among the broken 

 floes, and have been known to break through ice three inches thick that had been formed over 

 water between the floes. This they do by coming up under and striking it with the arched portion 

 of their heads. Hence they have been called " ice-breakers." 



Economic mpOETAiiCB. — The Bowhead is the most valuable of the whalebone whales, not so 

 much by reason of its size, for it rarely exceeds fifty feet in length, never sixty-five, but because 

 it yields so large an amount of oil and whalebone. It is short, bulky, and bloated in appearance. 

 Like the sperm whale, it has a head the length of which is nearly one-third of the total, and which 

 is its most striking feature. The caudal fin is immense, being sixteen to twenty feet in extent from 

 tip to tip, and correspondingly thick and broad. 



Size. — Scammon gives measurements of two individuals. One, from the Arctic Ocean, August, 

 1867, was forty-seven feet long, and yielded eighty barrels of oil. The other, from the same ocean, 

 in 1870, was forty-five feet long, yielded sixty barrels of oil and 1,050 pounds of bone. Capt. David 

 Gray, of Peterhead, also gives measurements of an individual taken in Greenland. Some of the 

 most important dimensions of these three whales are presented here, in order to impart to the 

 reader an idea of their proportions: 



Length 



Lengtli of head — nose to eye . . 

 Breadth of body between fins . 



Girth in largest place 



Length of pectorals 



Breadth of tail 



Length of longest bone 



Tbicliness of blubber 



Breadth of lip 



Gape of mouth 



Scammon, 



'Captain Poole's 



whale." 



Feet. in. 

 47 



8 



19 



10 6 



11 



Scammon, 



'Captain Smith's 



whale." 



Feet. in. 

 45 



28 

 7 3 

 16 



'Captain Gray'e 

 whale." 



Feet. in. 



47 



17 8 



H 



20 

 10 1 



5 

 10 8 



Movements. — When not disturbed the animal remains up, generally to respire, from one and 

 a half to two minutes, during which time it spouts from six to nine times, and then disappears for 

 the space of ten to twenty minutes. The volume of vapor is similar to that ejected by the right 

 whale. Sometimes, when engaged in feeding, it remains down for twenty-five minutes or more. 

 When struck by the whalemen they have been known to remain on the muddy bottom, at a depth 

 of fifty fathoms or more, for the space of an hour and twenty minutes. Their movements and the 

 periods of time they remain above or below the surface are, however, irregular. When going 

 gently along or lying quietly, they show two portions of the body — the spout-holes, and a part of 

 the back. 



Baleen. — The baleen, or "whalebone," of the Greenland and the Eight Whales, being of so much 

 importance commercially, it cannot be amiss to explain, by means of diagrams and a description, 



