The Opelousas courier., 1892-09-24
BIG FORTUNES In A JAW
THE SUPPLY OF wHALEBoNE Is
BECOMING SCARCE.

$40 o Each, But Are Difticul
and Dangerous to Catch.
X S a matter of fact the supply o
~ whalebone has fallen off full.
~ one.half within the last few
years. Until recently thu
American market handled fully five hun.
dred thousand pounds annually. Now
it is scarcely two hundred thousand
pounds and the foreign supply has ceased
entirely, leaving America to bear the
burden of supplying the world. As to
the matter of price, in 1912 the best
quality Of whalebone in the unfinished
state sold for twenty-nine cents a pound,
now the same grade brings 1878 for a
like quantity. Adding to this the profits
of manufacturers and dealers, the cost Of
finished whalebone to the consumer to-
day is about SO a pound.
The ladies of the world will have the
queer looking and erratic bowhead whales
to blame if they are deprived of their
comfort in the future. Not that these
are reduced in numbers or are less prolific
than formerly, but the bowheads have
1 SQhCH III lubO tACil Uld1AS w " VA
ward. Whether they are bound for the
North Pole or not no n seems to know,
but they approach each year nearer to the
limit of the perpetual ice fields and thus
render it more dangerous and difficult to
the whalers to capture them.
A bowhead whale does or ought to
command every gentleman $ repect. Their
variety furnishes the most plentiful sup
ply and b8t quality of the so-called
whalebone that comes to hand. They
are hunted in the waters contiguous to
the northwestern coast of the North
American continent and are pretty little
creatures of several tons weight and about
fifty feet in length, of which more than
one-third comprises the head, which con-
tains frequently as much as seventeen
hundred pounds of bone. The question
of respect comes in when the value OF
one of these creatures is taken into &C.
count. It approximates $40, 900.
As has already been said, bowheads
are numerous, but dreadfully hard to
capture. Once they were contented to
swim and feed in the open water of the
Boring Sea and Strait, but now the
whalers have to ascend to higher lati-
tudes, frequently to that of Point Bar
row, which juts out into the Arctic
Ocean at about seventy-two degrees
north. The dangers attendant upon
whaling have thus been increased. The
whaling fleets have been diminished in
numbers, the expenses of a voyage in-
creased aud even at SIC, 0a0 per whale
the occupation is neither tempting or re-
munerative. But for whalebone, how.
ever, it would be given up entirely, for
ordinary whale oil Is absolutely not
worth the cost of the labor of trying the
blubber.
The whalebone itself is found Id the
upper jaw of the creatures moAth. This
cavity Is of enormous size and 70 actually
larger than that Of the body, thorax and
abdomen combined. The upper jaw is
very narrow, but greatly arched from
before backward to increase the height
of the cavity and to allow for the great
length of the baleen, as the whalebone
blades are technically called. These
blades are suspended from the upper
gum, somewhat like teeth. They are
arranged In two series, separated by the
medal line of the mouth, and number
as many as five hundred in
divfdual blades.
The extreme length of the longest, or
blades is from twelve to seventeen
feet. They graduate down to a few
feet at either extremity. They are black
In color, fine and highly elastic in tex
ture and fray out at the inner edge and
into long, delicate, soft and almost
but very tough hairs. When the
mouth is opened these long blades pro-
)ect below and over che lower jaw. The
food upon which the creatures subsist
strains between the blades and is retained
within the mouth by the long hair.
After a whale has been captured the jaw
containing the blades Is GU from him,
ioisted aboard ship and slowed below.
Whalebone readily commands 1918 a
BOUND In the raw state in the market to-
aud the manufacturers beg for it at
hat figure.
It Is a very difficult matter to capture
whale, ever after one has been mar
For instance, at the whaling
tation last year bombs were shot into
We hundred whales, of which between
and twenty only were caught.
The greatest catch last year reported by
ny one steamer was tW~enty-one whales.
average catch is probably eight,
nd many sailing vessels get but two or !
The season lasts from March to
November. :
The preparation of the bone for the
onsumer is not a difficult or particu-
arly interesting process. Il is taken in I
Quantities of five hundred pounds or so, {
nd soaked in water or steamed until it /,
ecomes soft enough to work. 1t is then |
into strips ive-sixteenths of an inch |
ride aud thirty six inches long. The {
IS sold by the gross. A gross of
verage standard bone will weigh about
wo aud a half pounds.-New York
Ierald.