26 THE WHALES AND POEPOISES. 



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 instractive. It was furnished by Oapt. 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 Loudon, 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 Whales off Kamtchatka; made 480 barrels. 



Captain Spooner took one Eight Whale off Kamtchatka; made 260 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 Buuch 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 Mcgaptcra osphyia Cope, that of the Cahforiiia region M. vvr- 

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

 about the species of the Atlantic. 



Mi&EATiONS. — They appear to resort periodically, and with some degree of regularity, to cer- 

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

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

 Bauderas, Mexico, latitude 20° 30' ; and in May, 1855, at Magdalena Bay, Lower California, lati- 

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

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

 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 

 he estimates its yield at 400 pounds to 100 barrels of oil.^ 



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: ojj. dt., i)p. 40, 41. 



