The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1897-04-28
IN a WHALES STOMACH.
Capt. Davis Visited the Interior of No
Less Than Five Mammals.

Capt. 5. A. Swinnerton, having sailed
the seas for many years, is now keeper
of Lighthouse No. %, off Noank, Conn
During his sea life Capt. Swinnerton
was a whaler. Naturally he knows other
whalers, and when he read DIR. Lyman
Abbott's sermon on Jonah and the
whale he bethought himself of Capt
James r. Davis, of Noank. retired
whaling captain, IS years old, who has
been five times JONAH" which Is
Capt. Davis own way of saying that be
has lived in the bellies of five different
whales.
Unfortunately for the strictest pos
sible application of Capt. Davis expert
ences to the Scriptural story, but no
doubt fortunately for Capt. Davis him
/ self, his whales were dead. But he was
in them-of that there is no doubt-and
| he has lived TO smoke pipe and tell
about it. and Capt. Swinnerton tells the
story of his friends experience thus:
Il dined yesterday with a man, now
IS years of age, who has been in the
| bellies of five different whales. He is
| Capt. James r. Davis. of Noank, Conn.
and this was done when he was young
man of % years of age. He was one of
| the crew of the whaling ship Tiger,
| Capt. William Brewster. of Stonington.
| Conn, which left that place in 1915, sail
| ing direct around the Horn to the whal-
/ ing grounds of the Pacific. Afterward
the ship sailed to Magdalena bay, off
the Lower California coast. The gray
| back whales use it as breeding ground
| and are found here in great numbers.
| The cow whales float up on the sandy
shore of the still waters and when the
| tides fall the young whales are born on
| the beach. The calf when born has its
dukes bent up like a hook, and il il
several days before this hook straight
ems out enough for it TO nse it to swim.
The mother whale will sport about
| the bays until her baby gets the crook
| out of its tail and then teaches it to SWIM
The cow whale when about to calve is
very fat and valuable and yields about
40 barrels of oil from the blubDer and
seven barrels from the inside heart fat
and that about the liver and entrails.
1.-THE mother whales never desert
/ b4IClI y oduS anu mus DCtOIAC easy cap
lures. After being killed they are towed
alongside the snip. A cutting-in chain
/ is fastened to the side fin, a tackle from
ii to the mainyard hauled tight and one
strip of blubber cut into. This is called
blanket piece. Then the ribs are cut
at the backbone and the blanket piece
and the ribs are hauled up from the
carcass. leaving hole in the upper part
of the body just back of the head.
"a man enters this hole and cuts all
the fatty substance from about the
head, which is shaped like a chickens
gizzard. but from two feet to so inches
in diameter.
Capt Davis told me that he was in
different whale each day for five days,
being inside each mammal about an
hour doing this work, and that il is
common custom for a whaler to be for
time Jonah in the whales stomach.
Capt Davis has been Jonah on FIVE
different occasions. Now, if a young
man of % years can live in whales
stomach, even though the whale be
dead. why could not the Jonah of the
Bible live three days and as many nights
in that famed whale of Scripture? Capt.
Davis five whales had not been dead very
long when he was in them."-N. Y.
Herald.
Why He Was Deaf.