Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-02-16
"oREYhouNps OF SEA"
MAY BECOME EXTINCT
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

Washington.-'If the American and
European people could be educated to
the point Of eating the canned flesh Of
animals which individually yield as
much as $4,000 pounds of meat, what
wonderful food supply would be within
reach Of the poor OF our great cities.
writes Roy Chapman Andrews, OF New
York, in an interesting communication
on whaling, to the National Geograph-
ic Society, at Washington. D. G. He
predicts that as q result of the world
hunt for the monarch OF the seas, now
going on in full blast. the commercial
extinction of the large whales, within
q very few decades, is inevitable. Elk
cep. in Japan, he says, great portions
of the animals, which is palatable and
healthful, is now going to waste or is
being used for fertilizing purposes.
Few people realize that the blue. or
sulphur bottom whale, found in all our
oceans is not only the largest animal
that lives today, but is also. so far as
is known the largest animal that has
ever existed on the earth or In its
waters" writes Mr.. Andrews. "Speci-
mems have been measured which
reached a length Of eighty-seven feet
and in all probability weighed as much
as seventy five tons. Attic the mouth
is enormous, large enough in fact to
permit ten or twelve men to stand up
right in it, the throat measures only
nine inches in diameter. These AMI
mails. like most Of the whale bone
whales usually feed on minute crust
aceans, shrimp about three-quarters
Of an inch long. They probably never
eat fish of any kind if other food is to
be had, and Of the many stomachs have
examined, never once could anything
but the little red crustaceans be found.
From the stomach of one blue whale al
Vancouver Island five barrels of shrimp
were taken, and it was by no means
full.
Probably no cetacean has such Won
derful strength as have the blue
whales. When saw blue whale with
harpoon between the shoulders drag
ship, with engines at full speed astern.
thru the water almost as tho it had
been a rowboat, I began to listen to
the stories Of their incredible strength
with more respect. The finback, close
ly related to the blue whale, has been
called the greyhound Of the sea- for
its long, slender body is built on the
lines Of the racing yacht and the ami
NAL can equal the speed Of the fastest
steamship.
"All the large whales show great af-
lection for their young, and the cows
and calves will seldom leave each other
when pursued by ship. I remember
at one time in Alaska we sighted fe-
male finback with a young one about
thirty feet long beside her. AS the old
whale rose to spout, the gunner fired.
killing her almost instantly. The calf.
altho badly frightened, continued to
finally. when its dead mother had been
hoisted to the surface. the little fellow
came alongside so close that l could
have struck him with stone During
the time that the carcass was being JIM
fated and the gun reloaded. the calf
was constantly within O few fathoms
Of the ship. swimming around and
around, sometimes rubbing itself
against the body Of its dead mother.
Finally harpoon was sent crashing
into Its side, and 1t sank without
struggle.
I'm the uppera portion Of the head Of
the sperm whale is an immense oil tank
in which the valuable tspermacetr is
found in liquid condition and from
which it may be dipped with bucket
when an incision Is made. From a
sperm whale sixty feet in length which
was sent from Japan, twenty barrels Of
spermaceti were taken out Of the case
and the surrounding fat. The sperm
whale is the animal which yields am
bergris, the valuable substance used so
extentively in the manufacture of our
best perfumes" So,