BRITISH MAMMALS 



it of ' harpoon,' and when the first English seamen under Thomas Edge 

 went north to Spitzbergen in 1 6 1 1 to hunt the Greenland Whale, they 

 found it necessary to take six Basque harpooners among the crew. 



When feeding, the Nordcaper opens its capacious mouth as it pro- 

 ceeds slowly under the surface of the sea, then closing the jaws when the 

 inrush of water has drawn in a multitude of minute crustaceans, it expels 

 the liquid through the baleen blades, while the food remains on the 

 tongue. The amount of nourishment thus taken in must be vast, to 

 supply the needs of such an animal. 



The old-fashioned method of hunting the whale with hand-thrown 

 harpoons from boats in touch with a vessel, has now been superseded 

 by an entirely new system, first practised by the Norwegians, when 

 Svend Foyn invented a new weapon in 1864 in order to cope with 

 the dangerous Rorquals. This was a heavy harpoon, with an explosive 

 charge, attached to a strong rope and fired from a gun mounted in the bow 

 of a steamship of moderate size. This method was found to be very 

 efficient. 



According to Scoresby a harpoon-gun was in use as far back as 

 1 73 1, but this was discharged from a small boat at close quarters and 

 was not altogether a success. 



In modern whaling, if the animal is not killed by the shock caused 

 by the harpoon, it is soon brought to the surface and killed by being 

 lanced from a boat. 



According to Millais {Mammals of Great "Britain and Ireland)^ 

 "Right Whales bring forth in the month of March every other year, 

 the young being suckled for twelve months." 



For the drawing of this species in the Plate, and for some of the others, 

 I have used the models in the British Museum (Natural History). 



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