WHO HAS BORNE THE ANXIETIES
OF HER SON’S LONG WANDERINGS
PREFACE
In this book I have endeavored to tell of modern shore whaling as I have seen it during the past eight years while collecting and studying cetaceans for the American Museum of Natural History. This work carried me twice around the world, as well as northward on two expeditions to Alaska, and southward to the tropic waters of Borneo and the Dutch East Indies.
I have also tried to give, in a readable way, some of the most interesting facts about whales and their habits, confining myself, however, to those species which form the basis of the shore whaling industry, or are commercially important, and which have come under my personal observation.
In all of this work the camera has necessarily played a large part, for it is only by means of photographs that whales can be seen in future study as they appear alive or when freshly killed. It is hardly necessary to say that the photographing has been intensely interesting, and to any one who is in search of real excitement I can heartily recommend camera hunting for whales.
It should be understood that this book is in no sense a manual of the large Cetacea. I hope, however, at some future time to write a volume which will treat of this wonderful mammalian order in a less casual way, and thus satisfy a desire which has been ever present in my mind since I began the study of whales.
Some portions of this book have been published as separate articles in the American Museum Journal, World’s Work, Metropolitan, Outing, National Geographic, and other magazines, but by far the greater part of it is new.
There have been many pleasurable sides to the work, but one of the most delightful has been the friends that I have made, and my cordial reception by the officials of the whaling companies in whatever corner of the world I have chanced to be.
Space will not permit me to mention all those to whom I am indebted and who have contributed to the success of the various expeditions, but I wish first to express my gratitude to the Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History, under whose auspices all my work upon cetaceans has been conducted, and especially to President Henry Fairfield Osborn for his encouragement and wise counsel.