Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-12

and she sounded so deep that we could not
gain on her, SO we hauled in the slack line
as fast IS we could. We finally got up
| with her when she rose then she showed
| signs of weakening, aud we pulled along
side of her with safety. The mate now
| gave her the hand lance and down she
went again, and
CAME UP sPoUTING BLOOD
This time. The mate gave orders TO lie on
their oars as it would soon be all up With
her. She came up soon and went into her
| death furry, spouting blood, slashing and
| FLASHING the water with her fippers and
| fiukes, which lasted about ten minutes,
when she rolled over on her back dead.
The other boats came mp by this time, and
each threw an iron into her with towline
ATTACHED. We then stuck flag on her and
signalled for the ship and pulled for the
vessel, singing as we rowed with our prize
in tow. The progress of cutting up is
| very interesting. The whale lies along
side, the fukes forward and the head aft
| The Ause. hooks are lowered away and
made fast around the fiukes and up through
| the hawser-pipe around the bits. A haw-
ser Is made fast around her jaw and up
| through the afterch0ck, to keep her in po-
sition while they are stripping her of her
blubber. A platform is rugged out over
the sides, midshps for the men to work
On while they are stripping off her blal-
! ket-you know she is on her back now. the
wsy they always lie when dead. With
| spade in baud, the barpooner makes an in
cision IL the whale, then runs the spade
down between fat and flesh, cutting it
| off in, So "a.
from aloft With the blubber-hook, hooked
into the blanket strips, then, with turn
around she capstap, they hoist in the strip,
spading ali the while until her Jacket is sll
cut off, turning her over and over with the
kant tackles.
THE FLUKEs AND FLIPPERs
| Are cut off aud sent on deck. The whale.
bone Tor baleen) is cut out of the upper
jaw ; and, lastly, the tongue is cut out and
sent on deck, leaving nothing but red, raw
| flesh. the CARCASS. now entirely stripped
of all that is useful to us, is cast adrift.
With the blubber sll on deck, all turn to
storing it between decks. No indications
of whales next day, ali hands turn to,
mincing blubber, preparatory TO trying
out" How do you get out your oil lat
ses) from the blubber - Gin the try.
works, which are built on deck, between
| the fore and man hatch; two large iron
! kettles are built in brickwork, with crate
| under them. The first batch of blubber is
tried out with wood fire. After that,
with blubber scraps from which the oil has
been extracted is used for fuel. The scraps
from one whale will try out thee whales.
But the latest msthOd OF trying out is by
steam, with better results There are
| about thirty species of whales, running all
| the way from the porpoise and dolphin up
to the sperm and the right. The principal
ones are the batHna mysticetus. or Green
| land right whale, the catcholot, or sperm
| whale, the southern Australian whale, the
sulphur bottom, the great rorqual, the
rsZor-back, the bowhead, the fnbsck, the
| humpback, the white Tor grsmpus),
the norwhale, and other low varieties too
whale is the Greenland by great odds. 1t
is the best catch on account of the great
amount of
WHALEB0NE AND OH,
1t yields. In a gocd-sizsd whale the bone
Is worth from $50 to $500. and the oil, of
which there are from 40 to 200 barrels,
viii bring all the way from Sl4 to $40 per
barrel. The great rorqual il the largest OF
the whole whale family, specimens having
been caught measuring l45 feet. The
southern whales are not go lsng, and are
captured anywhere in the Antarctic wa
tiers. The most extensive whaling is done
along the coast of Africa and New Zsa-
| land, but of all the whales the Greenland
| is the most sought for. TIE whalebone of
| commerce Is taken from the whales mouth
Il Is not the whales bones, az most land.
! iubbeTs think. There is no particular
value to whales bones, although trey make
q very good fertilizer. Whales have no
teeth at all, but instead they have the
whalebone in the upper law, which is from
| eight to sixteen feet long, lammellar IN
| structure. The plates or layers are about
one-quarter to three.quaFters of an inch in
thickness, and about thirty inches in
breadth, with long, fringy, bristle. like
formation hanging from the edge.
THE WHALE Is NOT FISH,
| not lay eggs in the sand to hatch out by
| the heat of the sun like the alligator nor
among the rocks or icebergs, as fish do, to
be Matched out by the ripples. TIE whale
| 10 mammal In every sense of the word
In fact we always speak of them as cattle,
such as bull, COW or calf Il possesses a
| fisk-like body, it inhabits the sea, and it
| lives completely an aquatic existence.
! Hence, to say that whale is a fish, ap-
pears at first an eminently safe and justi-
| fable assertion. However, there may be
found ample reasons for their complete sep.
aration in some very simple and common
| facts. For instance, the whale breashes by
| lungs, like ourselves, and has to ascend
| periodically to the surface to inhale air.
| The fish, on the contrary, breathes by gills,
and is enabled to remain permanently un.
der the surface, and to extract from the
water the oxygen necessary for the creation
| of the blood. The body covering of the
| whale consists typically of hairs, although
| in manner of such furnishing the whales,
| as rule, are more or less deficient. The
fish, on the other hand, is covered with
| scales and, while the whale is a warm
blooied animal, the fish is cold blooded-
that is, the temperature of its body is very
little raised above that of the medium in
which it lives. The temperature CT the
whale is equal to that of the OK. The
whale possesses a
POUR cHAMBERED HEART
| And double circulation. The heart, as
In ourselves, not merely sends blood to the
lungs TO be purified, but likewise distrib-
utes the pure blood throughout the body.
As an important point of distinction, the
young OF the whales are born alive, and
nourished by means of milk, while the
young of the fishes are Matched from eggs,
and are developed, az rule, independently
of parental care and attention. The eyes
OF whale are situated at the extremity
of the widest part of the head, and are
shout the size of the eyes OF an OK.
Whales generally swim together in schools,
except on the feeding grounds, In the
breeding season the bull is usually kind
and watchful father, for he shows the
greatest attention TO the calves In helping
to feed them, although he sometimes deserts
the family, and the mother being unable to
provide for the calf, it sometimes dies.
The mother nurses her offspring like a SOW,
from two udders, which hold great qaan.