The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-12

Did the whale swallow Jonah?
 The question, which has been the sub feet of so much dispute, has been re- vived among government scientists by the expedition sent to Newfoundland by the Smithsonian Institution in pursuit of a flnback whale.
 The whale sought is the biggest of sev- eral species of hnback whale. It is the largest animal now existing on the earth, But was it the particular kind of ceta- cean that ate Jonah?
 Science. with the data now at hand, has been able to sift the matter to some extent, and. as one might say, to boil down the evidence. As a result the fact may be considered as definitely establish ed that, notwithstanding widespread in- credulity on the subJect-an incredulity which has striven to classify the scrip tural account as either fiction or alle- gory-there is nothing inherently impos- sible in the Jonah story. The whale might have swallowed and accommo- dated in its belly two Jonahs. If there had been a pair of them says writer in the Chicago Tribune.
 Accurate figures in regard to the ca pacity of a whale--the first published, and indorsed by the highest scientific authority-will be given presently. But meanwhile 1t is desirable to mention the fact that the Smithsonian expedition was organized and is directed by Dr. Fred eric ". True, who has sent F. A. Lucas, a famous expert, to Balena Station, on the south coast of Newfoundland with
 
 cast of one of the monstrous cetaceans.
 Casting Whale In Plaster.
 Mir. Lucas is now on the spot and, having secured the whale, is engaged in making a mold of it. Having provided himself in advance with about twenty barrels of plaster of paris, fetched from St. Johns he mixes the stuff with water fin sort of bin of blanks, such as ma sons use for similar purposes, and then pours it in bucketfulls over the carcass. The animal being about ninety feet long, with a weight of thirty tons, working from tail to nose, in order to obtain a series of plaster sections, which, duly fitted together shall represent the com plete creature.
 The plaster sections will be packed in about fifty large boxes, and forwarded to Washington, where in the workshops of the Smithsonian institution, they Will be used for making a complete cast of the whole in paper mache. For this pur- pose the treasury department will con- tribute great quantity of pulp that comes from the pot in which Uncle Sam s old paper money is boiled after being re- deemed, so that the transmogrifed ceta- cean will actually represent in a certain sense, a value of many millions of dol- lars. The cast Ca mere shell, for the sake of lightness), will be a perfect re- production of the whale, and, after be- ing painted, will be the literal image of the original animal, even to the smallest detail. It will be hung up for exhibition in a great hall of the new building that is to be erected for the National Museum. Now, when 1t comes to the question whether this was the kind of whale that swallowed Jonah, science is inclined to negative opinion. The throat of a finback whale notwithstanding the enor- nous size of the animal, Is so small that a mans arm could hardly be thrust down it. Besides the creature is not beast of prey; it feeds upon small crustaceans and othsr animalcules which float about at the surface of the sea-in short, a whale of gentle manners, and not at all of the sort that would absorb a prophet at a gulp.
 Right Whale Has Small Outlet. Il 'The right" or Greenland whale is the