SOME HABITS OF THE GRAY WHALE
Although the stomachs of a great number of gray whales were carefully
examined, I could never discover what constitutes their food, and no one
else seems to have had better success. In every case the stomach was
more or less filled with dark green water in which the only solid
materials were bits of kelp, a little seaweed, and small masses of light
green gelatinous material.
The stomachs of two individuals contained a number of waterworn pebbles
and several small pieces of what appeared to be finely shredded flesh
still connected by its fibers; this certainly was not fish. It is
probable that the kelp, seaweed, and pebbles had been taken in with
other material and were not swallowed intentionally.
All the gunners assert that when the gray whales appear at Ulsan on
their migrations they are invariably traveling straight ahead and
apparently not stopping to feed. This information, combined with the
fact that little except water could be found in the stomachs, lends
strong support to the theory that when upon their annual migrations the
devilfish do not feed at all, and during the winter draw for nourishment
upon the fat of their thick blubber. This is true of the fur seal during
the breeding season, and of other water mammals. When the male fur seals
arrive upon the “rookeries” at the Pribilof Islands to await the coming
of the females, their bodies are covered with layer upon layer of fat.
During the following four months the bulls do not leave the land and
neither eat, drink nor sleep while they guard their harems, subsisting
upon the fat which has been stored up on their bodies. When the animals
leave in the fall to spend the winter at sea, they have become so thin
through their self-enforced fasting that they are mere skeletons of
their former well-fed selves.
Scammon says that in the spring the blubber of the devilfish is dry and
yields but comparatively little oil, as would be the case if the animals
had fasted during the winter. I have no personal information as to this
because in Korea these whales are not killed on their northward
migrations. So many other and more valuable species can be taken during
the spring that the devilfish are allowed to depart unmolested. If they
do feed while on their migrations, the food in their stomachs would
certainly have been discovered when the animals were cut in at the
stations.
The male devilfish at all times shows strong affection for the female,
and when a school of males, led by one or two females, is found, if one
of the latter is wounded, often the bulls refuse to leave until the cow
is dead.
Captain Melsom tells me that while hunting a pair of devilfish near
Ulsan he shot the female, and the male would not leave his dead consort,
keeping close alongside and pushing his head over her body. Later he
struck the male with a harpoon, but did not get fast, and even then it
returned and was finally killed.
[Illustration:
Captain Melsom about to lance a gray whale from the pram.
]
Scammon says that when attacked in the lagoons with their young the
devilfish would turn furiously upon the boats, and that almost every day
injuries to the crews were reported. He gives an interesting account of
two gray whales which, in February, 1856, were found aground in
Magdalena Bay:
Each had a calf playing about, there being sufficient depth for the
young ones, while the mothers were lying hard on the bottom. When
attacked, the smaller of the two old whales lay motionless, and the
boat approached near enough to “set” the hand lance into her “life,”
dispatching the animal at a single dart. The other, when approached,
would raise her head and flukes above the water, supporting herself on
a small portion of the belly, turning easily and heading toward the
boat, which made it very difficult to capture her.
It appears to be their habit to get into the shallowest inland waters
when their cubs are young. For this reason the whaling ships anchor at
a considerable distance from where the crews go to hunt the animals,
and several vessels are often in the same lagoon.[10]
Footnote 10:
(_l. c._, p. 25.)
The whalemen in Korea, where the hunting is done from small steamships
by the Norwegian method, do not regard the animals as especially
dangerous. They seldom lance one from the pram, as is frequently done
with other whales, because the devilfish seem to be very sensitive to
pain and as soon as the iron penetrates the body the animal will raise
itself in the water, throwing its head from side to side and sometimes
lashing about with its flukes and flippers.
Probably if the gray whales were hunted on their breeding grounds about
the southern end of Korea, they would be found to be dangerous even to
the vessels themselves, but I doubt if more so than other species under
similar conditions.
Most whales are subject to diseases of various kinds and the devilfish
is no exception. One specimen was brought to the station at Ulsan with
all the flesh on the left side of the head badly decomposed and in some
places entirely gone, leaving the bone exposed; what remained hung in a
soft, green evil-smelling mass. The whale had evidently suffered
considerably from the disease, for it was very thin and the blubber was
dry.
[Illustration:
After the death stroke. The lance has penetrated the lungs and the
whale is spouting blood.
]
A second specimen had a large swelling on the ventral ridge of the
peduncle, which, upon being opened, proved to be a large capsular tumor
about one foot in depth and of a like diameter. The skin upon the snout
of a third individual was drawn into small circular patches, leaving
large sections of the blubber exposed.
The entire body of the devilfish is thickly infested with “whale lice”
and barnacles. The former resembles a diminutive crab and by means of
the sharp claws on its feet fastens itself firmly on the soft skin of
the whale. Wherever there is an injury or abrasion of any sort,
quantities of these parasites cluster and breed.
On the snout and top of the head the skin is usually roughened, or
cornified, much like the “bonnet” of the right whale, this being caused
by the attacks of the whale lice. If one of these parasites is placed
upon the hand it begins slowly to raise the body upon the front legs,
driving its claws into the flesh, and in a short time will be firmly
fastened and can only be removed with difficulty. The whale lice are
crustaceans and have been named _Cyamus scammoni_ after Captain Charles
M. Scammon, who first discovered them upon the gray whales of
California.
Besides whale lice the devilfish are the hosts of hard, shell-like
barnacles known as _Cryptolepas rhachianectei_. These imbed themselves
deeply on all parts of the body and sometimes are found in large
clusters. Whenever a barnacle becomes detached a circular, grayish pit
remains; this becomes white as the wound heals, and the scar is exactly
like that produced on the humpback by the barnacle _Coronula diadema_.
Without doubt these parasites cause the whale a great deal of annoyance
and the animals probably rub themselves against rocks in endeavors to
scrape them off.
The hairs on the devilfish are longer and are distributed more uniformly
over the entire head than in the case of any other whale. This is an
exceedingly interesting and important fact and, together with many other
anatomical characters, indicates that the gray whale is a very primitive
species which is more like its ancient, fossil ancestors than any other
existing large cetacean.
The presence of hairs upon whales and dolphins is evidence that when the
animals lived upon the earth, millions of years ago, they must have been
entirely covered with hair as are ordinary land mammals. The hair of
most whales is confined to the snout and chin but in the devilfish it is
distributed in irregular rows over the top and sides of the head.
The hair on cetaceans is in a degenerate condition and does not possess
at the base a gland (sebaceous) for the secretion of oily matter to
supply it with nourishment and lubrication as in land mammals. It seems
probable that the loss of hair in cetaceans is largely due to their
aquatic life, because the blubber performs the function of hair in
keeping the animals warm and an outer covering is no longer needed; also
most land mammals need hair to protect their tender skins from bruises
and abrasions but for a whale this is unnecessary.
The manatee, or sea cow, an entirely aquatic mammal, has lost nearly all
hair, and in the walrus it has become very much reduced; the latter
animal spends almost all its time in the water, coming out but
comparatively seldom to sleep upon the smooth ice; and in addition to
the blubber it has developed an exceedingly tough skin. It is true that
seals all possess blubber, and some an additional coat of thick soft
fur, but they are not as yet exclusively aquatic; although much of their
life is spent in the water, they still come upon the land for extended
periods during the breeding season and need hair for protection from the
rough rocks upon which they rest, rather than for warmth.
The blubber of the devilfish is thick and fat and varies in color from
red to flesh-pink. Because of this difference the Japanese recognize two
kinds of gray whale—the _aosaki_ (red blubber) and the _shirosaki_
(white blubber), but this is merely an individual difference and
certainly is not sufficient ground for specific distinction.
The Japanese consider the meat and blubber of the devilfish to be of
poorer quality for eating than that of any other baleen whale. In the
winter, during December and January when the price is at the highest,
the blubber sells for about 4 _sen_ (2 cents) per pound and the red meat
at 10 _sen_ (5 cents).