FOOD OF THE WHALE. 
113 
sea. They long since became so rare in the Mediterranean 
as not to afford encouragement for the fishery as a regular 
occupation ; and the great demand for oil and whalebone for 
mechanical and manufacturing purposes, in the present cen¬ 
tury, has stimulated the pursuit of the “ hugest of living crea¬ 
tures ” to such activity, that he has now almost wholly disap¬ 
peared from many favorite fishing grounds, and in others is 
greatly diminished in numbers. 
What special functions, besides his uses to man, are as¬ 
signed to the whale in the economy of nature, we do not 
know ; but some considerations, suggested by the character of 
the food upon which certain species subsist, deserve to be 
specially noticed. None of the great mammals grouped under 
the general name of whale are rapacious. They all live upon 
small organisms, and the most numerous species feed almost 
wholly upon the soft gelatinous mollusks in which the sea 
abounds in all latitudes. We cannot calculate even approxi¬ 
mately the number of the whales, or the quantity of organic 
nutriment consumed by an individual, and of course we can 
form no estimate of the total amount of animal matter with¬ 
drawn by them, in a given period, from the waters of the sea. 
It is certain, however, that it must have been enormous when 
they were more abundant, and that it is still very considerable. 
A very few years since, the United States had more than six 
hundred whaling ships constantly employed in the Pacific, 
and the product of the American whale fishery for the year 
ending June 1st, 1860, was seven millions and a half of dol¬ 
lars.* The mere bulk of the whales destroyed in a single year 
fourteenth century, the word occurs oftener, perhaps, in old Catalan, than 
in any other language; but Capmauy does not notice the whale fishery as 
one of the maritime pursuits of the very enterprising Catalan people, nor 
do I find any of the products of the whale mentioned in the old Catalan 
tariffs. The whalebone of the mediaeval writers, which is described as very 
white, is doubtless the ivory of the walrus or of the narwhale. 
* In consequence of the great scarcity of the whale, the use of coal gas 
for illumination, the substitution of other fatty and oleaginous substances, 
such as lard, palm oil, and petroleum, for right-whale oil and spermaceti, 
the whale fishery has rapidly fallen off within a few years. The great 
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