SHORE-WHALING: A WORLD INDUSTRY 



427 



mm 



CROSS-SECTION OF BLUBBER ON BREAST OF WHALE, SHOWING THE EOLDS (SEE P. 414) 



cattle and sheep in the Occident. In 

 other countries but little of the real value 

 of the animals is secured, and their great 

 bodies are being spread upon the south- 

 ern cotton fields instead of feeding thou- 

 sands of hungry poor. 



THE BLUE WHALE 



I have been writing of the methods of 

 preparing whales, but have told little of 

 the animals themselves. Few readers, 

 perhaps, realize that the blue, or sulphur- 

 bottom, whale found in all our oceans is 

 not only the largest animal that lives to- 

 day, but is also, so far as is now known, 

 the largest animal that has ever existed 

 on the earth or in its waters. Specimens 

 have been measured which reached a 

 length of 87 feet and in all probability 

 weighed as much as 75 tons. Although 

 the mouth is enormous, large enough in 

 fact to permit 10 or 12 men to stand 

 upright in it, the throat measures only 

 about 9 inches in diameter (see p. 412). 



These animals, like most of the "whale- 

 bone whales," usually feed on minute 

 crustaceans, a shrimp about three-quar- 

 ters of an inch long. They probably 

 never eat fish of any kind if other food 



is to be had, and of the many stomachs 

 which I have examined, never once could 

 anything but the little red crustaceans be 

 found. From the stomach of one blue 

 whale at Vancouver Island five barrels 

 (1,215 pounds) of shrimp were taken, 

 and it was by no means full. 



The Norwegians gave the animal the 

 name of blue whale from the bluish cast 

 to the beautiful gray body. Sulphur- 

 bottom, as thi whale is called at the 

 American stations, is a misnomer and 

 unfortunate, for there is not the slightest 

 trace of yellowish color anywhere upon 

 the animal. 



Probably no cetacean has such won- 

 derful strength as have the blue whales. 

 I have heard many stories of the almost 

 incredible way in which these animals 

 can pull, but was at first inclined to doubt 

 them. Later, when I saw a blue whale 

 with a harpoon between the shoulders 

 drag the ship, with engines at full speed 

 astern, through the water almost as 

 though it had been a rowboat, I began 

 to listen with more respect. Since the 

 tail is used almost exclusively for pro- 

 pelling the animal forward, if the iron 

 strikes far back the whale is greatly 



