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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



DRAWING A FINBACK UP ON T 



out of range. Sometimes the animal 

 thrust its entire head and fore part of 

 the body out of the water, with a loud, 

 whistling spout, sinking back out of 

 sight before the ship could swing about. 

 Again, it inverted itself and, with the 

 entire posterior part out of the water, 

 began to wave the gigantic flukes back 

 and forth. The motion was slow and 

 dignified at first, the flukes not touching 

 the water on either side. Faster and 

 faster they waved, until they were lash- 

 ing the water into foam and sending 

 clouds of spray high into the air ; then 

 slowly the action ceased and the whale 

 sank out of sight. The ship was not 

 far from the animal as it went down 

 and I stood waiting on the gun platform, 

 when suddenly the water parted directly 



E ways to be cut up : japan 



in front of us and with a rush that sent 

 its huge, black body five feet clear of the 

 surface the whale shot into the air, fins 

 extended, and fell back on its side, sink- 

 ing slowly out of sight amid a perfect 

 cloud of spray. 



THE SE)I, OR SARDINE WHALE 



While in Japan during 1910 I had an 

 opportunity to study in considerable de- 

 tail a species which has never before 

 been reported in numbers from the 

 North Pacific. This is the sei whale of 

 the Norwegians and the "Iwashi kujira" 

 (sardine whale) of the Japanese. It is 

 not a large animal, seldom exceeding 54 

 feet, and is formed on slender, graceful 

 lines, much like the finback. Its colora- 

 tion also resembles in a general way the 



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