432 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



LIFTING A GIANT FINBACK WHALE OUT OF THE) WATER SO THAT THE CUTTERS CAN 



GET AT IT (SEE PAGE 433) 



to spout not five fathoms from the ves- 

 sel's nose, the gunner fired, killing her 

 almost instantly. The calf, although 

 badly frightened, continued to swim in 

 a circle about the ship, and finally, when 

 its dead mother had been hoisted to the 

 surface, the little fellow came alongside 

 so close that I could have struck him 

 with a stone. During the time that the 

 carcass was being inflated and the gun 

 reloaded, the calf was constantly within 

 a few fathoms of the ship, swimming 

 around and around, sometimes rubbing 

 itself against the body of its dead mother. 

 Finally a harpoon was sent crashing into 

 its side, and it sank without a struggle. 



PECULIARITIES OF WHALES 



The feeding operations of the hump- 

 back, blue, and finback whales are car- 



ried on in essentially the same way and 

 are most interesting to watch. If the 

 "feed" happens to be floating at the sur- 

 face, as is frequently the case in the 

 morning and evening, the action can be 

 easily seen. The whale opens its mouth, 

 takes in a great quantity of water con- 

 taining numbers of the floating shrimp, 

 turns on its side, and brings the pon- 

 derous lower jaw upward, closing the 

 mouth. The great, flexible tongue, filling 

 the space between the rows of baleen, 

 forces out the water, leaving the little 

 shrimp, which have been strained out by 

 the bristles on the inner side of the 

 whalebone plates. The fin and one lobe 

 of the flukes are thrust into the air as 

 the mouth is closed, and sometimes the 

 animal rolls from side to side. At this 

 time the whales are careless of danger 



