The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-25
LAND GOING WHALES.
FACTS ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF
KEEPING WHALES ALIVE ASHORE.

Burned at Barnums-The Snowman Tri-
umphs Over the Naturalist Whales DIFF
hcult to Keep Alive In Captivity.
Professor ii ID. Butler, who brought
the two white whales now III the New
York aquarium from Riviere Ouelle,
near the mouth of the st. Lawrence
river. by railroad, i'll recent interview
spoke as follows about his achievement:
In telling you how l keep whale
alive on land, it will be necessary for
me to give away one of my professional
, secrets, but ! guess there is no reason
why shouldn't give it away. First
catch your whale Then put him in q
box, open at the top and lined with wet
seaweed. That will give him enough
moisture TO keep him fairly comfortable.
Now comes the trick of the trade-that
is, to keep his blowhole moistened with
a wet sponge OF course you know that
a whale is not fish He breathes air,
! like any other animal and he has only
! one breathing passage, the blowhole.
He can t breathe through his mouth as
! man can, and if he caught bad cold
! in his blowhole he would suffocate for
! lack of air. Now, if the blowhole dries
up it cannot relax and contract, but
= stiffens up. and the whale promptly
dies Therefore it is necessary to keep 1t
constantly moist. This requires little
water. In fact, think l didn't use
J ft1l fNyn
whales in the 900 miles trip down.
That included sponge bath apiece
twice day.
Il remember very we'll my first
whale. That was about 30 years ago,
when | was in the show business. |
was employed in Barnum' museum
here, and | also had an aquarium IN
Boston, where | spent one week out of
the four While | was there two men
named Tetu came from the mouth of
the st. Lawrence with two whales fro
zen solid, which they exhibited in a
bCilding on Chatham street neat
business they did, too, with those
whales. Eventually the whales were
dissected, and was present at the dis.
section Although l was no scientist
only practical showman-I decided,
on examining the internal economy OF
the subjects, that it was practicable to
bring live whale to Boston. OF the
financial advantages of such a scheme
had no doubt
eff those fellows can make good
thing out of dead whales, / said, i
can make fortune ont of live one.
/ $50 | went to see Professor Agassiz,
who was at that time at the height OF
his fame.
professor, said /, how long will a
whale live out of water
six hours. if it is good, healthy
specimen. said he.
Pm going to bring one down here
by train from the gulf of st. Lawrence,
/ said. L believe | can keep him alive
during the journey
"Young man, said he. don't you
be fool If you've got money to waste
you can have better time with 1T thar
that.
, But l felt certain, and so | made ar
rangements with the Tetus to catch me
whale III the spring They caught me
white whale, like the ones now i'll the
aquarium here, and | got 1t as far al
Portland without any one finding ou
about it. Then the newspapers got on
and the Boston papers published dis
patches telling of our progress along the
route. You'd have thought that whale
: was a member of royalty from the at
i tention he attracted That was the frs
i whale ever brought alive into America
q and every body wanted to see 1t had
= special exhibition, at which AgasslZ
d Longfellow, Wendell Phillips, Whittier
d William Lloyd Garrison, and other wei
q known people were present In con
4 graduating me Professor Agassiz said
d 81 didn't think it could be done
There is nothing like believing in
!, thing and then going on and doing 1T.
h mo sooner had Mr.. Barnum heard
= my whale than he came to me and said
!; "Hell, Butler chat was the onl.
q profanity he ever used). why can't WI
/. have q whale in the museum"
: "At that time there seemed to be m
space for tank, but later put one in
Meanwhile the Boston whale fourished
,. and I had harness made for it, which
r l hitched to water chariot The whal
r would draw the chariot around tn
i tank, and any child that wished ooul'
: ride behind the monster. Meantime
$ was busy having basin dug in the Gel
= lar of Barnum's museum, at Ann stree
S and Broadway, New York. Anothe
o whale was caught, and l brought 1T in
!, How to keep the water in the tank fresl
4 was problem. We decided on boil
o course, and on Saturday night bi
: gang of men were at work laying pipe
:; down Fulton street and through Wash
: ington market to the river. 1t was don
by Monday morning, before anybod
had chance to get out an injunction
against US. A few people knew about II
: among them the alderman of the WARD
Z but the alderman-well, he was al
Il right. guess the pipe is there yet.
y soon we had pumping engln
:, working. and our whale was supple
= with good fresh water He lived TO