THE SHARP-HEADED FINNER WHALE. 51 



frequently gambols about vessels when under way, darting from one side to the 

 other beneath their bottoms. When coming to the surface it makes a quick, faint 

 spout, such as would be made by a suckling of one of the larger Cetaceans ; which 

 plainly accounts for whalemen taking it to be the young of more bulky species. 

 At sea the Sharp -headed Finners are seldom seen in pairs, but wander solitarily 

 along, frequently changing their course in the depths below, and meandering along 

 the whole continental coast of the North Pacific ; occasionally visiting the large 

 estuaries about the shores. They pass through Behring Sea and Strait into the 

 Arctic Ocean, where they appear to be as much at home as their superiors in size, 

 the Bowheads and the California Grays. Like the latter they thread the icy floes, 

 and frequently emerge through the narrow fissures bolt upright, with their heads 

 above the broken ice, to blow. When roaming about the inland waters of lower 

 latitudes, they often shoot along the shallow borders of the bays in search of the 

 myriads of small fry on which they mainly sustain themselves. They can not be 

 considered as objects of pursuit by whaling vessels, and are but rarely taken by 

 the natives of Cape Flattery — they being the only whalers in that region who 

 attempt the capture of these animals. 



