Natural History: Mammalia/Balænadæ
Family III. Balænadæ.
(Whales.)
As in the Cachalots, the head of the true Whales is of enormous bulk as compared with the body and extremities, but it does not terminate in a broad abrupt muzzle. Both sides of the upper jaw are furnished with transverse plates of a horny substance, called baleen; the lower jaw is destitute of teeth. The number of species belonging to this family is very limited; they are comprised in two genera, Balena and Balenoptera, of which the latter attains the largest size, but the former is the most valuable to man, on account of its yielding, in greater abundance, the important products of oil and baleen, or whalebone. The Arctic and Antarctic seas are the principal, but not exclusive resorts of these immense creatures.
Genus Baræna. (Linn.)
The Whalebone-whale is distinguished as a genus by the total absence of a dorsal fin; by the plates of baleen being large and numerous, and by the skin of the under parts being destitute of folds.
The most valuable species is that of the Arctic Ocean, known as the Greenland Whale, or as the "right whale" of seamen (Balena mysticetus, Linn.). It attains a length of fifty or sixty feet, and a thickness of ten or twelve. The form is clumsy, though in a less degree than that of the Cachalot, the head being large, and the mouth enormous; the gullet, however, is not sufficiently capacious to admit the passage of a man’s hand. Its food consists exclusively of minute animals that swarm in its native seas, some of which are small crustacea, others medusæ and mollusca. The food is received in a singular manner. The branches of the lower jaw are slender, and widely arched outwardly, so as to form the frame of an immense spoon: the mouth is opened at random, and whatever chances to be within the inclosed space is ingulfed. The upper jaw with its transverse plates of baleen, now acts as a strainer, and while the water is driven out through the narrow interstices, the particles of food are retained by the close-set plates, and then swallowed.
The structure and arrangement of the plates of baleen, are thus described by Mr. W. C. L. Martin. “The palate of the Whale is arched and oval, and forms a vaulted roof to which the plates of baleen are attached transversely, in two rows, parallel to each other. Each plate consists of a central, coarse, fibrous layer, lying between two, which are compact, and externally polished, constituting a sort of enamel or varnish; but which outer layers do not cover the internal or true baleen to its extreme free edge; the latter, therefore, extends beyond the former, and terminates in a fringe, in which are entangled the small molluscous animals, which constitute the food of this huge animal. Each plate of baleen is of a subtriangular figure, and its base, attached to the palate, has a long furrow, fixed upon a pulp, buried deeply in the firm vascular substance of the gum covering the under surface of the maxillary and intermaxillary bones. The outer layers, of compact matter, are continuous with a white horny layer of the gum, which passes on to the surface of each plate; and the pulp is therefore the secreting organ of the internal layer of coarse elastic fibres. The number of plates composing each row is from three hundred to four hundred, and the palate being oval, the longest are those situated in the middle; those towards the muzzle and near the entrance of the throat being consequently the shortest. The longest of these laminæ often measure fifteen feet and upwards in length, and the abbreviation, anteriorly and posteriorly, is gradual. Each plate, as we have said, is fringed, and the filaments of the fringe are very numerous, and fill up the cavity of the mouth sufficiently to form a strainer."[1]
WHALE FISHERY.
The habits and economy of this species agree in many points with those of the Sperm Whale; and the general features of the "fishery" for both are the same; but there are many differences in the details. The Greenland Whale seems to be, now at least, confined to the icy ocean that surrounds the North Pole; in former times it probably descended into more temperate climates. It is replaced in the southern hemisphere, by apparently two species, B. australis, Desm. and B. antipodum, Gray.
The Whale, under ordinary circumstances, comes to the surface to respire at intervals of eight or ten minutes: when, after having been harpooned, he endeavours to escape by diving, he sometimes remains half-an-hour submerged, but is greatly exhausted after so long a suspension of breathing. He commonly remains about two minutes at the surface, during which he blows eight or nine times. The steam expelled with the expiration, condensed in the cold air, takes the form of a puff of white smoke, as if from the discharge of a gun. The ejection of air is strongest, densest, and loudest, when alarmed, or after a long stay under water. The ordinary speed of the Greenland is much less than that of the Sperm Whale: it seldom exceeds four miles an hour; under the pain of the harpoon, however, it will descend at double that rate of speed, and to such a depth that instances are recorded of Whales coming up with the muzzle covered with clay from the ocean-bottom, and of others having fractured their jaws by the violence with which they had come into contact with the rocks.
"The most pleasing as well as astonishing exhibition of the power and activity of these animals is during the pairing season, when they gamble and frolic in the waters, throwing themselves about in the exuberance of delight, little aware of the approach of their enemies. Some times they dart along the surface, and then dive and reascend with such energy as to leap entirely out of the water; sometimes they raise themselves perpendicularly; sometimes, head downwards, they flourish their tails aloft, and lash the water with tremendous violence, throwing the sea around them into foam, and producing a roaring noise resounding to a considerable distance." The affection of the mother for her sucking offspring, is very remarkable; and is taken advantage of by the whalers; who often strike the young one to obtain the mother, knowing that she will not forsake it. Mr. Scoresby has recorded several most affecting instances of this maternal love, stronger than the fear of death. On one occasion, a suckling Whale having been struck, the mother arose to the surface, and seizing her infant beneath her fin, dived instantly, dragging about a hundred fathoms of line with considerable velocity. Again she rose to the surface; furiously darted to and fro; frequently stopping short, or suddenly changing her direction, and exhibiting every symptom of extreme agony. She acted in this manner for a considerable time, though closely pursued by the boats, her maternal concern over- coming all sense of her own imminent danger. ‘The harpoon at length was infixed in her, after two failures; yet, indifferent to pain, she still refused to seek her own escape, but clung to her young one, thus permitting the harpoons of other boats to be thrown, until at length she expired with her offspring, an unresisting prey.
The incessant pursuit of this huge animal, has driven it from regions in which it was formerly abundant, and is perceptibly thinning its numbers in the seas to which it still resorts. Nothing can be more impolitic than the slaughter of young animals, in themselves nearly useless, as thus the source of future supply is dried up. ‘The Whale produces but one at a birth, which is suckled a long time, until by the development of its plates of baleen, it is able to feed itself on its ocean-supplies.
The whale fishery was carried on as early as the twelfth century, by the inhabitants of Biscay. It does not appear, however, that they sought their huge prey in any more distant locality than the Bay which bears the same name, whence the Whale has long disappeared. The revival of this lucrative pursuit in the more productive regions that he beneath the Arctic Circle, was owing to the discoveries of those enterprising navigators who sought a north-west passage to the Pacific, about the close of the sixteenth century. Their reports of the great abundance of Whales about the coasts of Greenland and Spitzbergen, awakened the spirit of commercial enterprize in the English and Dutch, who embarked with vigour and success in the new pursuit, and were soon followed by the French, Danes, and Hamburgers, So great was the number of Whales in those seas, and so easy was their capture, that many vessels used to be sent to the shores of Spitzbergen in ballast, which were not engaged in the actual pursuit, but were simply destined to bring home the superabundance of oil and whalebone obtained by the whalers, over and above what their own vessels could carry. The practice then was to boil the blubber into oil upon the shore. The ardour of pursuit, however, soon diminished the number, and increased the caution of the animals, and as they had to be sought farther from the coast, the establishments. for boiling were given up, and, since that time, the blubber is brought home in its crude state, to be manufactured.
In 1820, a very successful year, when, too, the Whale fishery was in the height of its pursuit, Great Britain had 159 ships engaged, 57 of which resorted to Davis’s Straits, and 102 to the sea of East Greenland. The amount of tonnage was 50,546. The number of Whales taken was 1595, producing 18,745 tuns of oil, and 946 tons of baleen. In 1884, but 7 British ships were in the Greenland Sea, and 69 in Davis’s Straits, making 76 in all engaged, whose united tonnage was 24,955: 872 Whales were procured, yielding 8214 tuns of oil, and 442 tons of baleen. The average price of whale-oil may be about £29 per tun, and that of baleen £163 per ton. Of the ships engaged in the whale-fishery, by far the greater proportion are fitted out from Hull, this port and Peterhead furnishing fully half of the whole: the remainder are distributed among ten other ports, all, with the exception of London, situated either in Northumberland or Scotland.
- ↑ Pict. Museum, i. 243.