250 MARINE BIAMMALS OF THE NOETH-WESTEBN COAST. 



Humpbacks, and California Grays ; but occasionally a Right Whale, a Finback, or a 

 Sulphurbottom is captured. 



The localities of several of the stations are quite picturesque. Some of them 

 are nearly concealed from seaward view, being inside some rocky reef, or behind a 

 jagged point, with its outlying rocks, upon which each successive wave dashes its 

 foam, as if forbidding the approach of ship or boat. The one which most inter- 

 ested us is half- hidden in a little nook, on the southern border of the Bay of 

 Carmel, just south of Point Pinos. Scattered around the foot-hills, which come to 

 the water's edge, are the neatly whitewashed cabins of the whalers, nearly all of 

 whom are Portuguese, from the Azores or Western Islands of the Atlantic. They 

 have their families with them, and keep a pig, sheep, goat, or cow, prowling 

 around the premises; these, with a small garden-patch, yielding principally corn 

 and pumpkins, make up the general picture of the hamlet, which is a paradise to 

 the thrifty clan in comparison with the homes of their childhood. It is a pleasant 

 retreat from the rough voyages experienced on board the whale -ship. The sur- 

 rounding natural scenery is broken into majestic spurs and peaks, like their own 

 native isles, with the valley of the Rio Carmel a little beyond, expanded into 

 landscape loveliness. 



Under a precipitous bluff, close to the water's edge, is the station ; where, 

 upon a stone -laid quay, is erected the whole establishment for cutting -in and 

 trying -out the blubber of the whales. Instead of rolling them upon the 

 beach, as is usually done, the cutting- tackles are suspended from an elevated beam, 

 whereby the carcass is rolled over in the water — when undergoing the jorocess of 

 flensing — in a manner similar to that alongside a ship. Near by are the try- 

 works, sending forth volumes of thick, black smoke from the scrap -fire under the 

 steaming cauldrons of boiling oil. A little to one side is the primitive store- 

 house, covered with cypress boughs. Boats are hanging from davits, some resting on 

 the cj^uay, while others, fully equipped, swing at their moorings in the bay. Sea- 

 ward, on the crest of a cone-shaped hill,, stands the signal -pole of the lookout 

 station. Add to this the cutting at the shapeless and half- putrid mass of a muti- 

 lated whale, together with the men shouting and heaving on the capstans, the 

 screaming of gulls and other sea -fowl, mingled with the noise of the surf about 

 the shores, and we have a picture of the general life at a California coast- whaling 

 station. 



The aggregate amount of oil taken by the several shore parties, since their 

 first establishment, may be estimated at not less than 95,600 barrels ; of this 

 amount, 75,000 barrels have been obtained from the California Gray Whales, and 



