THE CALIFORNIA GBAY WHALE. 23 



along the sea- shore. The time of gestation is about one year.* Occasionally a 

 male is seen in the lagoons with the cows at the last of the season, and soon after 

 both male and female, with their young, will be seen working their way northward, 

 following the shore so near that they often pass through the kelp near the beach. 

 It is seldom they are seen far out at sea. This habit of resorting to shoal bays 

 is one in which they differ strikingly from other whales. In summer they congre- 

 gate in the Arctic Ocean and Okhotsk Sea. It has been said that this species of 

 whale has been found on the coast of China and about the shores of the island 

 of Formosa, but the report needs confirmation. 



In October and November the California Grays appear off the coast of Oregon 

 and Upper California, on their way back to their tropical haunts, making a quick, 

 low spout at long intervals ; showing themselves but veiy little until they reach the 

 smooth lagoons of the lower coast, where, if not disturbed, they gather in large 

 numbers,"!" passing and repassing into and out of the estuaries, or slowly raising 

 their colossal forms midway above the sui'face, falling over on their sides as if by 



whether it lived to come to mattirity is a matter 

 of conjecture. 



* This statement is maintained iipon the fol- 

 lowing observations : We have known of five 

 embryos being taken from females between the 

 latitudes of 31° and 37° north, on the California 

 coast, when the animals were returning from 

 their waim winter haunts to their cool summer 

 resorts, and in every instance they were exceed- 

 ingly fat, which is c[uite opposite to the cows 

 which have produced and nurtured a calf while 

 in the lagoons ; hence we conclude that the an- 

 imals propagate only once in two years. 



f It has been estimated, approximately, by 

 observing men among the shore -whaling parties, 

 that a thousand whales passed southward dai- 

 ly, from the 15th of December to the 1st of 

 February, for several successive seasons after 

 shore -whaling was established, which occurred 

 in 1851. Captain Packard, who has been en- 

 gaged in the business for over twenty years, 

 thinks this a low estimate. Accepting this num- 

 ber without allowing for those which passed off 

 shore out of sight from the land, or for those 

 which passed before the 15th of December and 



after the 1st of Febraary, the aggregate would 

 be increased to 47,000. Captain Packard also 

 states, that at the present time the average num- 

 ber seen from the stations passing daily would 

 not exceed forty. From our own observation 

 upon the coast, wo are inclined to believe that 

 the numbers resorting annually to the coast of 

 California, from 1853 to 185G, did not exceed 

 40,000— probably not over 30,000; and at the 

 present time there are many which pass off shore 

 at so great a distance as to be invisible from 

 the lookout stations : there are probably between 

 100 and 200 whales going southward daily, from 

 the beginning to the end of the "down season" 

 (from December 15th to Februarj' 1st). 



This estimate of the annual herd visiting the 

 coast is probably not large, as there is no 

 allowance made for those that migrate earlier 

 and later in the season. From what data we 

 have been able to obtain, the whole number of 

 California Gray Whales which have been capt- 

 lu-ed or destroyed since the bay -whaling com- 

 menced, in 1846, would not exceed 10,800, and 

 the number which now periodically visit the 

 coast does not exceed 8,000 or 10,000. 



