Morning journal and courier., 1889-11-22
FACTS CONCERNING WHALES. Less Known About the Largest Ani- mai Than About Some That are Mi-


 "The reason that my attention was direct ed to this subject particularly" said Profess sor True to @ Post reporter. "Was the fact that so little was known to scientific men concerning whales. The works on zoology either treated the whale with few generali- cations, or ignored it altogether. My pur- pose has been to cover this field as well as it possibly can be done with such sources of information as are available. I spent four months in England and the continent of Eu- rope in the study of specimens.
 "Only about eighteen species of tho fifty six that frequent the coast of North America gre well known, and the majority of these of forms which have long been under obser- vation. The number of species whose hab- its, variations and distribution are thorough ly understood is still smaller. The life of ing visible. and it is not an appreachable an- imal. What is known of it's life has been obtained at long range, and many errors have thereby orept in. All the romance about thrilling adventures in the capture of the whale have had their day. It is still regard ed as dangerous occupation, but nothing like what it was in the past. You will hear no more stories of hand harpooning and the smoking line running out over the bow, the boat lowed by a leviathan at lightning speed, and all those details that illuminated the old time stories of the sea. Now whales are killed with a bomb lance, fired as any other projectile, at 8 moderately long range. It carries an explosive substance that detonates when the lance enters the body of the whale. orally harpooned afterward in order to make it fast, and unless this is attempted before the whale is dead it is not attended with any danger.
 "What are some of the popular fallacies in regard to whales?"
 sIn the first place the greatest of them all is that the whale Is fish. It is 6 mammal with none of the characteristics of fish. except that it exists in the water. An ami
 nal that nurses its young, and has rudimen- tary hind legs, could hardly correspond to fish in any respect. In almost every cut of
 whale you will see the animal spouting a
 tremendous volume of water from his blow
 holes. This is purely an imaginary habit on
 the part of the whales. The blow holes of
 the whale correspond to the nostrils of other
 animals. When it comes to the surface to
 breathe it expels the air from it's lungs with violent effort. It's nestrils are apt to be slightly under water, and the result is col umn of spray rises in the air. This has been mistaken in the distance by sailors for col umn of water. When whale had been harpooned SO that its lungs had been pene- trated, it is likely that the whale speuted blood and water through it's nostrils, and Gnl8 mas oOn0fm0u the OI1RlAat 6ITOT WAou | the sailors observed it at close range. | "Another popular error," continued Pro 1 lessor True, 'is that all whales furnish l whalebone. The two great classifcations 1 among whales are the teothed and the whale bone varieties. The sperm whale is a toothed whale and the right whale is a whale. bone whale. The whalebone in 8 good sized whale is worth several hundreds of dollars The toothed whales really have not much use for their teeth, as they cannot chew any, thing with them. They are merely . TOW of points that serve to grasp fish or other kind of prey, and hold it until it can work it down it's throat. The teeth are only on the lower jaw. There are no molars among the teeth and they cannot grind the food. Then the jaw is not hung so that it can do any, thing more than snap. The whalebone whale uses the fringe of whalebone around the upper jaw in lieu of teeth. It strikes e school of shell6sh, which abound in great numbers in the sea, and when it gets them in its mouth it closes its jaws. The water is squeezed out and the whale swallows every thing that is left"
 "How large an object can a whale swal- low"
 "The throat of the largest specimen is not more than three inches and half in diame- ter. Jonah was Q very small man if he made the round trip through whales throat" "Have any species been exterminatsdP' sFrom what we know it is not probable. For few years the right whale disappeared totally from the North American coast. None were stranded, and there wss no evil denoe that any more were in existence. A year or two ago one or two specimens were seen and now they are reasonably plentiful again. Whether they disappeared because they were pursued by man or for some other reason we cannot establish. That they tetal- ly disappeared, however, is conclusive. The c., S~ . AAokv <nS na ,a1n comes so scarce as to be in danger of exter-
 imitation it then becomes unproatable to chase it, and the opportunity for 8 renewal 1 of the breed is favorable"
 "Do they breed rapidlya"
 1 "One or two at birth is the rule. The
 smaller varieties generally bear twins, and a ! single one at birth is probably the case | with the greater varieties. The infants arc born pretty we'll able to take care of them-
 selves, though they are carefully nursed by | the mother until they ara swift enough tc provide themselves with food. It is the be lief that the mother floats on her side on tor of tho water when nursing, 50 that thu young can suckle with their blow holes out 1 of water. Whether this is true or not dc
 net know. A female with young is very
 wary and difficult to approach, so that very little can be gathered on this point from ao tual observation.
 1 "Do whales ever slesps'
 tThat is one of the many things that VI 1 do not knew. Sperm whales have been known to lie on the water motionless for a
 considerable period, but it can only be 1 guessed whether they are asleep or not. whale could not sleep under water for any
 length of time. It has capacity for storing
 great deal of air in the blood vessels that 1 fill the neck and are found we'll down through the body; but at the furthest this could ne
 last it more than half hour, when 1t would have to como to the surface to blow. It if
 assumed that many of tho lower forms o1
 life never sleep; but in tho ease of the whale
 I do not know that that point has ever beer
 investigated. It will be long time before
 we know all that it is necessary to know
 about the rovers of the sea. It Is, indeed,
 strange thing that, while the external ant
 internal psculiarities, and the life history o
 numbsrless insects and minute and lowly an
 imals have been thoroughly investigated l many of these great beasts have been entire