The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-14
FACTS CONCERNING WHALES.
Less known About the Animal Than
About some That Are Microscopic.

Less knoWn About the Animal Than
About some That Are Microscopic.
From the Washington Post.
OF all the modern scientists engaged in
the work of investigation, perhaps none
have adopted field more peculiar and en-
PERTAINING than Prof. Frederick W. True of
the National Museum. Prof. True is a
young man, but he has already spent five
years of his career as a scientist in looking
up one ubject-whales
THE reason that my attention was di-
rected to this subject particularly" said
Prof. True to a 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 gener-
alizations or ignored it altogether. NY
purpose has been to cover this field as well
as it possibly can be done with ssch sources
OF information as are available. l spent
four months in England and the continent
OF Europe in the study of specimens.
Only about eighteen species of the fifty
six that frequent the coast of North America
are well known, and the majority of these
Of forms which have long been under OBJ
servation. the number OF species whose
habl S, variations and distribution are
thoroughly understood is still smaller. The
life of the whale is passed with but little OF
it being visible, and it is not an approacha-
bic animal. What is known of its life has
been obtained at long range, and many
errors have thereby crept in. All the
romance about thrilling adventures in the
capture of the whale have had their day.
1t is still regarded as a dangerous occupa-
was in the past. You will hear n
no more stories of hand harpooning,
and the smoking line running out over
the bow, the boat towed by a le-
viathan at lightning speed, and all those de-
tails that Illuminated the old-time stories of
The sea. Now whales are killed with a
bomb lance, fired as any other projectile, at
moderately long range. 1t carries an ex-
ploslve substance that detonates when the
lance enters the body of the whale That
is the modern way. The whale is generally
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 whalesw
''In the first place the greatest of them ali
is that tae whale is fl h. 1t is a mammal
with none Of the characteristics of a 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
a fish in any respect. In almost every cut
OF a whale you will see the animal spouting
tremendous volume or water from his
blow-holes. This is purely an imaginary
habit on the part of the whales The blow
holes of the whale correspond 10 the nostrils
of other animals. When it comes to the
surface to breathe, it expels the air from its
lungs with a violent effort. It's nostrils are
apt to be slightly under water, and the
result is column of spray rises in the air.
This has been mistaken in the distance by
sailors for column of wster. When a
whale had been narpooned so that its lungs
had been penetrated, it is likely that the
whale spouted blood and water through its
noStrils, and this has confirmed the original
error when the sailors observed it at close
range.
Another popular error. " continued Prof
True, lis that all whales furnish whale
bone. The two great clasSifcations amo q
whales are the toothed and the wbalebone
varieties. The sperm whale is Joothed
whale, and the right whale is a whalebone
whale. The whalebone in a good-Aized
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 a row
of points that serve TO grasp fish or other
kind of prey, and hold It until it caA work