respiration, which lasts about five seconds. Immediately, however, the air is
expended, they open wide for two seconds while the lungs are filled. By this
time the head is again passing under water and the nostrils are closed.
When * sounding ’ the whole of the tail shows. Fabricius says that the Whale
descends and rises obliquely, a view supported by Racovitza (p. 29), but that it
turns over and dives vertically there is no doubt.
The first Humpback that I saw leaped clear of the water and fell in a great
cloud of spray about five hundred yards from the ship. We were at the time
following a large Finback about sixty miles north of Unst. The body of the animal
was quite perpendicular as it emerged from the sea. Humpbacks have a habit of
turning on their side and opening the mouth, as well as of rolling over on
their backs.
a The habits of this Whale,’ says Scammon (p. 42), ‘ particularly in its undulating
movements, frequent roundings, turning of flukes, and irregular course, are characteristic
indications, which the quick and practised eye of the whaleman distinguishes
at a long distance. Even when beneath the surface of the sea we have observed
them just under the “ run of the water ” (as whalemen used to say), alternately
turning from side to side, or deviating in their course with as little apparent
effort and as gracefully as a swallow on the wing.’
Besides being infested by a parasitic cirripede, Diadema coronula, the Humpback
is the host of a parasitic crustacean, known as a Whale-louse, Cyatnus suffusus, of
which a long description is given by Scammon (pp. 30-39). These collect in numbers
about the head and body or on any spot where the animal has been wounded.1
The swift circling movements and fighting spirit of this Whale, even when
mortally wounded, sometimes cause considerable trouble to the well-equipped
Balaenoptera-hunters of the present day, so that we cannot withhold our admiration
for the gallant American colonists and the natives of Alaska, the Friendly Islands,
and other parts of the Pacific, who have for centuries attacked and killed this
powerful animal in small boats and with indifferent tackle.
There is little doubt that the Indians of Alaska, the Esquimaux of Labrador2
1 These lice are found in great numbers on and actually in the honeycombed ‘ bonnet ’ of the Right Whale. Dr. Einar
Lonnberg is of opinion that the Whale suffers little inconvenience from their presence. He suggests that they may be of
service to the Whale in keeping its skin clear of larval barnacles. His investigations—confined to Whales from South
Georgia disprove the idea that the bonnet ‘ is a pathological structure, a kind of corn.’ See Field, September i, 1906.
* I have examined an old whaling harpoon of large size and said to be several hundred years old. This was obtained
from the Labrador Esquimaux living near Nam by Mr. John Bradshaw of Placentia. These people can still recollect times
when they killed the Humpback and the Southern Right Whale with such primitive weapons.