WHALES
1—SPERM WHALE. This whale was long avoided by the early whalemen before means were perfected to meet his wary and pugnacious character.
A large sperm whale would measure sixty-five feet and give eighty barrels of oil. Many larger ones have been taken but the average gave forty-five barrels.
Its natural food is the giant squid, which it finds at profound depths—a half mile or more.
Sperm whales are usually found in herds or “pods,” except in the case of occasional “lone bulls.”
2—RIGHT WHALE. This is the whale of the early history of the industry—docile and easy to take—whose only means of defence lay in its great tail or “flukes.” This and the Bowhead were known as “Baleen” or whalebone whales.
They feed on the surface—their food being small crustacea or “brit,” which they scoop up with open mouth and strain through the rows of baleen which hang from the upper jaw.
3—BOWHEAD WHALE. The Arctic or Greenland whale. Living in the cold waters of the high latitudes the blubber of this species is much thicker than that of Sperm or Right, one Bowhead rendering as much as three hundred barrels.
The quality of its oil, however, is much inferior to sperm oil, and for years it was hunted for its whalebone alone.