The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1899-05-16
M O. T o o o o o


Pacific about 1950-'54. The five cir
: Giles represent the number Of the boa
: to which this particular iron was as
signed. Taking the latest date, 1854
J the time when the whale was struck
it appears that the animal must have
carried it SO years. The harpoor
head was found in whale taken il
Behring sea in August, 1890, by the
steam whaling bark Beluga. After
her whaling experiences in the north
the Montezuma was sold to the gov.
eminent and was sunk in Charleston
harbor during the civil war. Senator
Perkins added that ever since whaling
became an industry it has been the
custom for each whaling firm to have
the name of the vessel stamped on
each harpoon. This is done in order
to show, if two or more boats from DIFF
ferent vessels surround an animal,
which of the vessels struck it in case
the whale gets away and is afterward
found dead.
DR.. William II. Dali, commenting
on this information in the National
| Geographic Magazine, refers to the
stories of whales that have been struck
in Greenland waters and have got
away and afterward have been found
in Behring strait with the first iron
in them, or vice versa. In other
words, the whales made the North
east or Northwest Passage. Capt. E.
P. Herenden, of the United States
National museum, commenting on
these stories, says:
eve know that the ships of the
Franklin search expedition APP
preached very near to one another
to the east of Banks Land and we
know the whale is able to make long
journeys beneath the summer ice
foes, for they easily see any place
where the light shows through the ice
which denotes a possible breathing
place. l have often heard whales
blowing among the ice when I could
see no sign of water anywhere"
Capt. Herenden thinks it very
probable that whales do make the pas
sage between the waters around Point |
Barrow and those around Greenland |
and Hudson bay, but he does not re-
gard the evidence of the harpoon
heads as conclusive, because ships
often change ownership or are with
drawn from the service and their
whaling implements are sold and put
on board other ships; and while no
secondhand harpoons would be put
into use without erasing the marks of
the former ship there is the possibility
that they might be given or traded to
the ESkimos, and whale might be
struck by a native With 9 secondhand
weapon from which the name of the
ship had not been erased, near the
scene of its final capture.
1t is evident, however, that the har-
pooh head found in the whale cap
tured by the Beluga must have been
in the animal for long time, for the
shank was eaten away close up to the
skin by the action of the salt water.
Considerable rubbing was required
before the name was revealed.
1t is well known that some of the
species Of whales range through a
very wide area of the seas. Prof. G.
in his address in 1894 on the
geographical distribution and habits
If whales, showed that the genus
which is the most serviceable I
If the whalebone whales of which the
0est-known species is commonly
Known as the Greenland whale, seems
% live throughout the northern cir J
seas. .
In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries it was common in the neigh
of Spitzbergen. Since the
md Of the eighteenth century it has
oeen taken in Davis strait. Since
SAY it has been captured in Behring
ea and near Kamtchatka. On the
vest coast of Greenland it descends
% only Ga degrees north latitude. 1t
las become SO scarce at the present
lay that very few are now taken. In !
1893 only four vessels from Dundee !
we're engaged in the Greenland whal- {
'ries, but they caught in Davis strait !
30 whales, which was much in ex- q
less of the record for a number of
'ears previous. In 1897 the two Dun
lee steamers, Eclipse and Nova zem-