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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



THE ^TENSERS AT WORK ON A SPERM WHALES HEAD! VANCOUVER 



"They make longitudinal incisions through the blubber along the breast, side, and back, 

 and from the flukes the entire length of the body to the head. The cable was then made 

 fast to the blubber at the chin, the winch started, and the great layer of fat stripped off 

 exactly as one would peel an orange" (see page 414). 



packed and sent southward to be mar- 

 keted at Tokyo and shipped to all parts 

 of the Empire. 



It is most unfortunate that prejudice 

 prevents whale meat from being sold in 

 Europe and America. It could not, of 

 course, be sent fresh to the large cities; 

 but, canned in the Japanese fashion, it is 

 vastly superior to much of the beef and 

 other tinned foods now on sale in our 

 markets. In New Zealand the Messrs. 

 Cook Brothers, who have developed a 

 most extraordinary method of capturing 

 humpback whales in wire nets, can a 

 great deal of meat and ship it to the 

 South Sea Islands, where it is sold to the 

 natives. 



The baleen of the rorquals, which is 

 of little value in Europe and America, 

 has been put to many uses by the Japa- 



nese. When I visited the exhibition 

 rooms of the Toyo Hogei Kaisha, in 

 Tokyo, I was astonished and delighted 

 at sight of the cigar and cigarette cases, 

 charcoal baskets, sandals, and other 

 beautiful things created by their clever 

 brains and skillful fingers from the ma- 

 terial which, in the hands of western 

 nations, seems to be useless. 



The whales are going fast, and it is 

 probable that long before the slow-mov- 

 ing wheels of government begin to re- 

 volve and legislation is enacted for their 

 protection, they will have become com- 

 mercially extinct. But since this seems 

 to be unavoidable, my hopes are that the 

 Japanese will get even more than their 

 share while they do last. There the 

 whales are as carefully prepared and 

 utilized for as great a purpose as are 



