From $700 to $800 is the value of a humpback to the manufacturer. The average quantity of oil rendered is 50 barrels, and a barrel of oil sells at $12 to $15. Most of the oil from the Durban factories is shipped to Glasgow, Scotland, the whalebone to Paris, France.
Some whalers say the food of a whale is small fish, while other authorities give it, owing to the gullet of some species of these cetaceans being but two and three inches wide, as very small, nutritious marine organisms, or insects, many not visible to the eye, called invertebrates. When feeding, the whale takes great mouthfuls of water, its whalebone serving as a strainer and repository in which the minute sea denizens lodge. The water is then forced out of the mouth, the food extricated from the meshes of the whalebone and advanced to the throat. The mouth is so well protected with this bone, which looks like a low, dense brush thicket, that nothing can enter the throat until it has proved palatable.
The whale breathes through two slits, 18 inches long, located on top of the head. Forty-five minutes is as long as the great mammal can remain under water without breathing; but when swimming fast it will be seen spouting at intervals of from five to seven minutes. The spouting is caused by the slits or air-holes being slightly under the surface. The tube through which air passes to the lungs is said to be three inches in diameter.
The color of the back and sides is black and the skin smooth. The underpart of the body and flippers is white, save for an occasional black speck and fine black lines—mottled. Flutes, four inches deep, corrugate the beast's underpart from tail to neck. In these grooves are to be seen a great many small barnacles, and on the neck and lower jaw barnacles grow as large as goose eggs.
From $8,000 to $10,000 is the value of a ton of whalebone from a "right" whale, 800 to 1,000 pounds of this elastic substance coming from the mouth. The bone grows in the form of strips, from 6 to 10 feet in length, and 6 to 12 inches in width. One end of a strip is fringed with fine, black hair-fiber, this part of the whale finding its way to the top of persons' heads, as out of it some "human-hair" wigs are made. A "right" whale, 10 to 15 feet longer than a humpback and in value equivalent to eight of the latter, is worth from $5,000 to $7,000, but of the hundreds killed in the Indian Ocean during a season not more than half a dozen of this specie will be among the number. The whalebone from the humpback is in little demand, growing but two feet long, and is of inferior quality. The bone in the mouth of the "right" whale calf—strips a foot long and tender—is of great value. These are shredded, the fine, soft fiber being made into artists' painting brushes.
The cow whale brings forth young each year, but triplets or even twins are unknown in the cetacean family. A calf first opens its eyes in the sea and soon finds its way to its mother's side, where, securely snuggled by a strong fin, it remains from three to six days. When able to "paddle its own canoe," the baby whale—a born swimmer—keeps close to its mother's side, either up to the surface to "blow," adding a tiny whitecap to the bounding main, or to accompany its maternal guardian to feed in salty pastures of the deep. A whale calf nurses like a colt. When a nursing cow whale is harpooned, whalers generally kill the calf also, as it would starve if left without its mother's nourishment.
At certain times of the year whales move in pairs—male and female. When a hunter meets a couple the female is first selected for slaughter; the sex is known by the cow being larger. The male whale will not desert his dead mate, and thus becomes an easy victim of the hunter's harpoon. On the other hand, if the male be shot, the female immediately takes flight.
A whale is 17 feet long when born. At three years of age it has attained a length of 30 feet, and during the succeeding eight or nine years reaches its full length—from 45 to 50 feet; so that it requires ten to twelve years to reach its maximum size. Old whalers are loth to hazard a statement concerning the natural lifetime of the cetacean.