New-York tribune., 1907-11-17
WH1LES And U'HALEBONE
Great Increase an Price of Product
of Huge Mammals Mouth.


Some Wall Street spectators at the present
juncture might we'll wish that they had coruered
the stock of whalebone in 1871 and kept it until
to-day. II would have cost them only $tt2,-
5O4 81 10 do it. as the price ruling at the time
was - cents pound. and there We're only too.
655 pounds to be had. At the price rulius To-
day they could obtain for it s.. 7O2,947 30 rep
resenting a profit of 2,24O +43 10. In 19CG the
average price paid for whaIebone was 81 30 4
pound.
DressTnakers and those who have to foot the
dressmakers' bills. besides those who wear the
gowns and other articles Of dress in which
whalebOne is used. when it can be obtained. VIII
be glad to hear that all reports indicate that
whales more plentiful just than they
have been in many years. 1t appears that the
only difficulty is in the catching of them. They
show that they are like birds in one respect
they have learned 10 dislike people who throw
things at them They have shown their ability
to adapt themselves 10 conditions. In the North
when they feel the prick of a harpoon they cut
under the ice and that is the last the whaler
sees of them The whaler dislikes this becaUse
he not only loses the whale. but. worse fate he
loses his harpOOn and a quantity Of line for
which he paid cash.
The rules for eating accredited to Gladstone
and Fletcher, which required thirty-two. more
or less, chewS to each mOuthfuL were never
meant for the true whale. 1t has no teeth and
it swallows it's food whole catching it in the
baleen, or strips of ''whaIebOne," which depend
from the sides of its mouth If a whale saw the
whalebOnes that wOmenkind are accustomed 10
using in their waists he would never recognize
them as part of his alimentary system they are
so small In the form in which they would be
familiar TO him they would be ten or twelve
feet long and look like giant brushes with a
handle ten inches wide at the end
One might wonder how any animal could close
its mouth with a grove of twelve foot quilts
sticking out of the roof When the mouth closes
the slabs OF baleen lie fiat in grooves. When the
mouth opens the slabs spring forward. COM
pletely filling the cavern One whale may have
as many seven hundred in its mouth Some
times the weight of this giant mouth fringe is 4
ton and the contents of the mouth of one whale
taken in Bering Sea, on Octber 20 1883 weighed
SlOo pounds, ton and half At the
present rate the contents of this particular
whales mouth would be worth approximately
$1,000.
n century ago, when whalebone was worth no
more than 10 cents a pound few vessels
brought any home. From 1874 to the outbreak
Of the Civil War the output averaged about
100000 pounds annually, the greatest for one
year being 5.692, 300 pounds in 1858. and the
price increased to 81 a pound. Since 1860 there
has been steady decrease in the output The
total amount of whalebone landed in America in
the course of the nineteenth century exceeded
SOOOOOO pounds. worth at the present market
valuation about S45OOO0.OOO. a sum that would
make the possessor one of the richest men in the
world, if not the richest of all