52 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



made visible by the colder air. The breath came 

 from the blow holes in a sibilant roar that resem- 

 bled no sound I had ever heard. If one can im- 

 agine a giant of fable snoring in his sleep, one 

 may have an idea of the sound of the mighty ex- 

 halation. The great lungs whose gentle breath- 

 ing could shoot a jet of spray fifteen feet into 

 the air must have had the power of enormous 

 bellows. 



Immense coal-black fellows these finbacks 

 were — some at least sixty or seventy feet long. 

 One swam so close to the brig that when he blew, 

 the spray fell all about me, wetting my clothes 

 like dew. The finback is a baleen whale and a 

 cousin of the right whale and the bowhead. Their 

 mouths are edged with close-set slabs of baleen, 

 which, however, is so short that it is worthless for 

 commercial purposes. They are of much slen- 

 derer build than the more valuable species of 

 whale. Their quickness and activity make them 

 dangerous when hunted in the boats, but their 

 bodies are encased in blubber so thin that it is 

 as worthless as their bone. Consequently they 



