The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1908-06-05


whalemen had space enough ber~~cc::s
their boat and the agile gray whale to
enable them to dodge usually and
thus they found time for using the
Ge,ldly shoulder gun.
The Pacific Coast fishery was pecu-
liar in the ferocious character Of the
whales that were most numerous, and
in the use of these swivel guns. No
where else in the United States have
such guns become fashionable. An,
other popularity in the fishery at the
shore station was found in the fact
that the crews in most cases were
partners and not employees of one
man OF company, or. rather it should
be said that they were at once own
ers and employees
When a whale was Saved" each
man received a LAY" in proportion to
the work he had done. Thus the men
who pulled the oars received a "lay"
of from one-sixtieth to one-seven-
tieth of the product. The men who
steered the boats received usually
one-fortieth, while the men who struck
the whale with the harpoon had from
one-sixteenth to one-twentieth. 1t is
to be noted that the harpoon throwers
who used the mountaineering guns, or
the hand lance when fast to whale
that did not fight.
In the ordinary whale fishery, the
harpoon thrower, after fastening a
whale to boat went aft and allowed
the man at the steering car-always
one of the mates of theFship--to go
forward and finish the killing. The
members of the shore-station crew,
having once drawn their lays" pro-
ceeded to divide what remained, ac-
cording to the shares that each owned
in the outfit. Still another interest.
ing popularity of the shore stations
was the presence of a Chinaman. who
was usually cook and received for
his pay the sinews Of the whale taken.
Another Curious Weapon.
A curious weapon that was invent
ed for the use of the shore whalemen
was a harpoon-carrying rocket. A
harpoon was fitted to the head of the
rocket. A gun barrel Of the kind
commonly used to fire bombs into
whales was also fitted to it. BY means
of a curiously arranged trigger this
gun barrel fired bomb into the whale
as soon as the harpoon had pierced it.
Tests on the beach showed that the
rocket had a range of 120 yards, but
for some reason presumably because
it was less convenient and less accur-
ate than a swivel gum, it was never
poular with the whalemen.
OF course in this fishery, as in tbs
others, the adoption of improved wea-
pons did but shorten the life of the
industry. No record was ever made
of the number of whales killed in Mag
dalena Bay and on the other breeding
grounus off the coast of Mexico, but
it has been authoritatively estimated
that at the shore stations at least TO-
800 whales were taken in the course
of twenty years after the first one was
established. If one considers the num-
Der known to haunt the coast during
the migrations, the annual kill was
seemingly insignificant; that is, it
might seem so. at first thought, for on
the average the number was less than
l per cent of the migrants.
But this usual toll, together with
the slaughter on the breeding grounds,
was more than enough to destroy the
balance of nature. Indeed, it is like
ly that the annual increase was no
more than enough to preserve the
numbers of the schools in the pres
ence of the natural causes Of death,
before the whalemen began the slaugh-
ter, and that the invasion of the
breeding grounds was of itself enough
to exterminate the race.
That the race was not destroyed
was due to the depression in the oil
market. The gray whales did not
yield valuable bone, and as the price
of oil fell CATER kerosene came into
use), the Americans abandoned the
fishery, leaving 1t to men from the
Azores, who were content as long as
they were able to secure score or
so of whales of various kinds in the
course of year.--From the New York
Evening Post