The whaling ships, which are now most powerfully built screw-propellers, leave Britain in the beginning of May for the Greenland seas, and endeavour to come across the track of their prey in the Baffin’s Bay districts. The men in the crow’s-nest have a weary and cold outlook, and as opportunity offers chase is given in the whaleboat in these dreary regions under circumstances well calculated to test the bravest spirit. The vessels often hover on the edges of the ice, or ram and bore their way through it, and when Whales are announced they are assailed by the boats’ crews with harpoons, lance, and at times harpoon-guns. These Whales when struck will occasionally run out more than a mile of cable, but return to breathe at no great distance, when the lance is used, and the extraordinary loss of blood weakens the monster and lays him at the mercy of his pursuers. Whales that have once been attacked and got free become very cunning, and instead of diving direct go straight along the surface, dragging boats and even ships into most dangerous positions, or cutting the ropes as they seek shelter under the ice. The American whalers on the Okhotsk Sea vary their mode of pursuit according to the district, often landing and even making night whaling expeditions, being guided by the phosphorescence accompanying the creatures’ movements. An ordinary-sized Whale, between forty and fifty feet, will yield, according to Scammon, from sixty to eighty barrels of oil, and 1,000 lbs. of baleen. The usual manner is for the Whale to be brought along the port side of the vessel, its tail forwards, belly up, and head aft. Tackled at each extremity, the men with spiked boots commence to strip the blubber, which is hoisted on deck. When the belly and right side with flipper are disposed of, the carcass is canted and the other side is similarly treated. The material is hastily put aside until the first quiet opportunity admits of it being cut in pieces and finally stowed in the holds, where it is kept in perfect safety until the return of the vessel. The skin and waste pieces of flesh or “kreng” are thrown away, and as the carcass and such useless matter are abandoned, they are quickly seized by the Killer Whales, Threshers, and Greenland Sharks, and by enormous numbers of sea-fowl that hover in the wake of the whaler.
HARPOON.
THE HUMP-BACKED WHALES.[251]—Of this genus three, four, or even more species are named by naturalists. The Long-finned (M. longimana), or Kepokak of the Greenlanders, inhabits the North Atlantic area as far as Davis Strait. A southern form, the Cape Hump-back (M. Lalandii), is distributed over the South Atlantic, also towards both continents. There is a South Pacific form (M. novæ zelandiæ), the New Zealand Hump-back, stretching to the American coast, and still another, the Japanese Hump-back (M. kuzira), which ranges to the Aleutian and Californian coasts. These Whales are by no means as valuable for oil or baleen as the Right Whale, and are not very frequently hunted. An adult averages fifty feet in length. The skin of the throat and belly is plaited longitudinally like corrugated iron with narrow furrows. The flippers are very long, one-third or one-fourth the length of the animal, their edges often undulating. The characteristic feature or hump, is a low dorsal fin, situate behind the middle of the body. They have a bulky, stoutish body, and a broad flat head, and the neck vertebræ are usually separate. They are black, occasionally paler below, and some have white flippers, but the baleen is black. Dr. Rink says that when struck with harpoon, the Kepokak rushes along the surface without diving. They rest lazily near the surface, beating their flippers as if scratching themselves. The Greenlanders steal up to them when asleep, and stab them with lances. All the species, at times, seem to delight in endless springing and dashing out of the water. They will yield from twenty to thirty barrels of oil, and a few hundredweight of an inferior quality of whalebone. The Hump-back of the Pacific, according to Scammon, proceeds north in summer, and returns southwards on the approach of winter; but they have been observed with young following them at various times and seasons.
Considerable interest is attached to another Cetacean of the North Pacific, which Capt. Scammon names the California Grey Whale.[252] The female of this animal is from forty to forty-four, and the male seldom more than thirty-five feet in length. In shape it may be said to be somewhat intermediate between the Right Whale, the Hump-backs, and the Rorquals, though in most respects nearest the last two. It has no back fin or hump, but instead a series of cross ridges on the hinder part of the back towards the tail. Occasionally individuals are nearly black, but the more common and characteristic colour is a mottled-grey or speckled patches of white on all the upper parts, underneath being darkest in body-tint. The flippers are fully six feet long, broad in the middle, but taper to a point. The head arches downwards from the blowhole forwards, and the baleen is remarkably short, brownish-white, and coarse in texture. From November till May this Whale frequents the Californian coast, and then the females enter the shallow bays and lagoons, and give birth to their young, while the males keep seawards. During the summer months they all journey northwards along the coast, and congregate amidst the ice in the Arctic Ocean and the Okhotsk Sea. So regular are their migrations, and so close in-shore do they swim, that Eskimo and Indians alike keep watch at the proper season, and as they pass successfully attack them in their canoes. The flukes, lips, and fins form native dainties, the oil is bartered for reindeer, a sauce is made of the entrails, and the Eskimo dogs feast on the flesh. Since 1851 a system of coast and bay whaling has been profitably pursued by the Americans along the Californian shores. At first 1,000 Whales would daily pass the outlook stations, though not a tenth part are now seen, so great has been the havoc and so shy of the land and whale-boats have the Californian Greys become. In calm weather these Whales will lie motionless for an hour or so on the surface of the water, but they nevertheless seem to delight in dashing and splashing among the surf and breakers. At other times they huddle together in shoal water, almost getting aground, while their young swim freely about in sportive play. The dam’s attachment to her offspring is very great, and hence lagoon whaling is most dangerous. Casualties are of constant occurrence in these narrow passages, the old Whale in her frenzy dashing her head against the boats, and lashing all around with her tail-flukes; hence the sailors call them “Devil-fish,” and “Hard-head,” while “Mussel-digger” is applied to them from their habit of probing among the mud. They often roam among the seaweed-banks, where the whaler shoots them with the harpoon-gun, as he lies in wait in a small boat or sailing craft. Thus this piebald Whale runs every chance of early extinction, seeing that whether in warm or cold latitudes, it is relentlessly pursued by its dire enemy—man.
HUMP-BACK WHALE SUCKLING HER YOUNG.
THE FIN-WHALES, OR RORQUALS,[253] as a group, vary exceedingly in size. Although at times of great dimensions, they are not so bulky in form and unwieldy as the foregoing whalebone groups. Their elongate bodies, smaller-mouthed heads, shorter baleen, plaited throats, and relatively narrow and small flippers, with a dorsal fin behind the middle of the back, high laterally-compressed tail-root, and separate neck-bones, besides other osteological characters, distinguish them sharply from the preceding. The amount of blubber and baleen in these Whales being exceedingly limited, coupled with their great muscular activity, restless disposition, difficulty and danger of approach, causes them to be seldom hunted. Their capture in fact is not remunerative. As a consequence, their numbers in some districts are considerable though scattered; even off British coasts certain species create great havoc in the herring and other fisheries. There may exist from eight to a dozen fairly-recognised species, and quite as many more doubtful ones. They have been divided into several genera by various naturalists, though there is a tendency to revert to the single term Balænoptera. So migratory are they, so active, and changeable towards localities, that little is known of their precise geographical distribution. They are found in the Polar seas, throughout the whole of the Atlantic, in the Indian, Pacific, and Antarctic Oceans. In their habits they have much in common. Ordinarily they do not congregate in large herds, though twos and threes, and occasionally more, keep company; others seem even more solitary in disposition. They are all more or less fish-eaters, and they commit great devastation among the Cod-bearing banks and Herring shoals—six and eight hundred fish having been found in the stomach of an individual. A few attain the enormous length of even 100 feet, and sixty or seventy feet is not an uncommon average, though some of the species are by no means distinguished on account of size. One of the largest forms is SIBBALD’S RORQUAL (B. Sibbaldii), black above and slate-grey below, varied with whitish spots. The Icelanders term this animal “Steypireythr,” and it is rather abundant in that region and South Greenland. Another of immense dimensions is known to the Pacific whalers as the SULPHUR-BOTTOM WHALE (B. (Sibbaldius) sulfureus). This glides with great velocity over the ocean, and is known at a distance by the vast amount of vapour it sends forth in blowing. Its yellowish belly gives its specific name. At times they appear in considerable numbers on the Californian coasts. One is recorded to have followed a ship for twenty-four consecutive days, and rifle-shots, &c., did not drive it away. The captain and crew at first had great fears of mischief, but at length the companionship of “Blowhard,” as they called him, and his close approach, became a subject of interest and merriment to them. The COMMON RORQUAL, or RAZOR-BACK (B. musculus), black above and brilliant white below, with an average length of sixty or seventy feet, is a well-known frequenter of British coasts. The LESSER RORQUAL (B. rostrata) resembles the last, but never reaches more than twenty-five or thirty feet. It frequents the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, and is supposed to stretch even as far as Labrador, Davis Strait, and the Aleutian Isles. It likewise has been met with several times in British waters, but it is best known as the “Seigval,” or Cod-Whale of Finland, and from the fact that it is a regular summer visitant to Norway.
A great many of the remains of Fossil Whales found in the Miocene and Pliocene deposits in various parts of Europe belong to the Fin-backs. One genus, the Cetotherium, Brandt has suggested, might form a transition between the Whales and our next order, the Sirenia. This supposition, however, is not borne out by facts, such features as denote likeness being rather deceptive. The Rhytina, a Sirenian, wanting teeth and with a somewhat Cetacean-like tail, however Whale-like in outward figure, in other respects is quite different from any member of the Order Cetacea, which taken as a whole cannot possibly be affirmed to show substantial links of close affinity either with the other Marine Mammalia or with the Land Mammalian groups.
JAMES MURIE.