Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-07-01
WHALING OF TODAY.
SOME FACTS ABOUT WHALES AND
HOW THEY ARE CAUGHT.

Many of the Big Creatures Weigh Over
a Hundred Tons-Onc-Half of Their
Bulk Is Marketable-sonie Bring as
Much as $4,000 After Being Cut Up.
1t is necessary to know how a whale
looks and what its habits are in order to
understand how they should be hunted.
They are about SO to GO feet long. and look
like immense black logs floating in the
water when their bodies appear on the sur
face. They are detected at a distance by
the stream of water they spout through
their blowholes. From one-fourth to one
third the full length is taken up by the
head, which is from 8 to 10 feet long and
from 9 to 10 feet in thickness.
Whales are entirely destitute of teeth,
but instead the mouth is furnished with
an apparatus of baleen or whalebone, for
the purpose of straining out of the water
the small fish and crustaceans which form
their food. The fbrous structure of whale.
bone, it's elasticity and h~eaviness, are all
well known. The plates of it in the mouth
are very numerous, several hundred on
each side and placed very close together,
the whole quantity sometimes amounting
to over two tons in weight. The tongue is
a soft, thick mass, and does not extend be-
You'd the back of the mouth. The gullet is
very narrow, not over ~ inches even in
the largest, so that animals not much
larger than ones thumb cannot pass down
their throats.
The skull is not symmetrical, the right
side being larger than the left; the flesh is
red and coarse, the skin. is naked and
moistened by an oily fluid. Parasites in.
fest the skin and some species Of mollusk
burrow and live in it. Below the skin is a
thick layer of blubber from one to two feet
in thickness, sometimes weighing over
thirty tons This keeps the animal warm,
and enables it to resist the great pressure
Of the water in the depths to which it de-
sends. The tail is five or six feet long
Inc twenty to twenty-five feet broad, and
is a most powerful weapon of defense. The
eyes, not much larger than those of an OK,
are on the sides of the head, about a foot
above the angle of the mouth. Whales
weigh from so to 1875 tons, and of their
weight at least half is of value and finds a
ready market.
WHERE WHALES ARE FOUND.
In addition to the two tons of whalebone,
there are about 800 barrels of oil in a bow
head whale. Besides the bone and oil,
whales afford u very valuable product
known to commerce as ambergris. 1t is a
morbid secretion Of the liver and intestines
of the sperm whale, a solid, Opaque, ash
colored, intlammable substance, lighter
han water, of a consistence like that of
wax, and having, when heated, a fragrant
odor. 1t softens in the heat of the hand,
melts below 2l2 degs. Fahrenheit into q
kind of yellow resin, and is highly soluble
in alcohol.
1t is usually found floating on the sur
face of the ocean or cast upon the shore in
regions f%requented by whales, as on the
coast of the Bahama islands, Aleutian
islands and other north Pacific islands,
sometimes in masses of from so to 2223
pounds in weight. In this substance are
found the beaks of cuttlcfish, on which the
whale is known to feed. 1t is highly val
ued as a material for perfumery, and was
; formerly used in medicine as an aphro-
disiac and for splicing wines. Sometimes
as much rs twenty to thirty pounds Il
Pounds in one whale, and all this is addi-
tional profit of course. a bowhead whale
is worth from e70O to 5000, or from $500
to about S. 600.
They feed by swimming along with their
mouths open. When it closes the water is
drained out through the valves at the
sides and some is sp565uted up through the
I %blowholes, The small fish and mollusks
! thus captured make up their food.
Now for the mode Of hunting them. On
all of the whalers a lookout is kept from
the "crow's nest" on the mast, and when
one is sighted spouting the lookout re-
ports, "There she blows!'' "Where away?'
is called from the deck. '"Two points on
the starboard bow, sir" or wherever else
it may be. Immediately boats are low
cred and the chase commences. The least
unusual noise will brighten them, and
after sail is set on the boat no one is al
lowed to speak or move a foot even. If
there is no breeze to carry the boat, then
the man in the stern paddles in that direc-
ton as noiselessly as possible, not daring
to use an oar, for fear the splash will
frighten the victim.
NARROWING A LEvIATHAN.
Tho boat follows as closely in the wake
of the whale as possible, and the bowman
stands in the bow, harpoon in hand. This
harpoon, or "iron," as it is called, is q
broad bladed spear head three or four feet
long, very sharp and having about six
inches cutting surface ID each side, and is
fastened on a pole about ten feet long just
ahead of a gun that is fastened to the same
pole. A spring connects the harpoon and
the trigger of the gun, so that when the
harpoon enters the flesh the pressure back
ward pushes the trigger spring, and the
bomb is exploded. Then comes the fun.
Stunned and stung as he is, the whale
starts down to escape, and the bowman
pays out the line attached to the harpoon
pole. AS soon as it is slack he hauls in
again and pays out when it tightens. So
on it goes until the boat may have been
towed several miles, but still holding on
and taking another shot every chance Of
fered, and as soon as the whale is killed it
is hauled alongside and fastened to the
ships chains.
The process of "feshing' or cutting up
is then commenced. Some of the crew,
having their boots armed with iron spikes
to keep them from slipping, descend upon
the carcass and cut into the blubber with
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