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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



MAKING A WHALE FAST TO THE SIDE OF THE SHIP! JAPAN 



hampered in its swimming movements ; 

 but with the harpoon between its shoul- 

 ders it can pull with all its strength. 



the finback, or "greyhound of the 

 sea" (see page 437) 



The finback, closely related to the blue 

 whale, has been called the "greyhound 

 of the sea," for its long, slender body is 

 built on the lines of a racing yacht and 

 the animal can equal the speed of the 

 fastest steamship. The back is dark 

 gray, shading into beautiful light gray 

 on the sides and pure white below. A 

 noticeable character about this whale is 

 the asymetry of the throat coloring; the 

 left side is dark slate and the right pure 

 white like the under parts. The baleen, 

 also, on the right side, for a distance of 

 about 2y 2 feet, is white, in sharp distinc- 

 tion from the remaining dark places. 



THE HUMPBACK IS VERY PLAYFUL 



The humpback is to me the most in- 

 teresting of all our large whales, partly 

 because of the fact that its habits are 

 more easily studied than are those of the 

 other members of the family. Its maxi- 

 mum size is under 55 feet, but its body 

 is thick and heavy, with enormous side 

 fins, or flippers. These great paddles are 

 one-quarter the length of the entire body 

 and a single one from a whale 49 feet 

 long weighed on the station scales 956 

 pounds. The throat, breast, flukes, and 

 flippers of the humpback are almost in- 

 variably covered with masses of barna- 

 cles, or rather barnacles on barnacles, 

 for the hard, shell-like Coronula are 

 themselves the hosts of the soft, pendant 

 goose barnacles (see page 417). 



Barnacles are not the only parasites 

 which infest these animals, for the hump- 



