United States or Tunisia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But to what ultimate generalizing purpose all these have written, the above cited extracts will show. Of the names in this list of whale authors only those following Owen ever saw living whales; and but one of them was a real professional harpooneer and whaleman. I mean Captain Scoresby. On the separate subject of the Greenland or right-whale, he is the best existing authority.
"'Are you sure, I asked, 'that it will swing into the coast on this Gulf Stream loop? "'I think I may say that it is certain to do so. I experimented with a dead right-whale. You may have heard of its coming ashore here last summer. "'I think I did, said I, with a faint smile. The thing had poisoned the air for miles around. "'But, I continued, 'suppose it comes in the night? "He laughed.
It was evidently a specimen of the right-whale, once common in the Northern seas, skeletons of which could be seen in many museums. Nothing would be gained to science by his capture, and Mr. Gibbs agreed with the others that it would be a pity to harm this, the last of his race. In thinking and talking over the matter Mr.
A belaying pin is found too large to be easily inserted into its hole: the carpenter claps it into one of his ever ready vices, and straightway files it smaller. A lost landbird of strange plumage strays on board, and is made a captive: out of clean shaved rods of right-whale bone, and cross-beams of sperm whale ivory, the carpenter makes a pagoda-looking cage for it.
A belaying pin is found too large to be easily inserted into its hole: the carpenter claps it into one of his ever-ready vices, and straightway files it smaller. A lost land-bird of strange plumage strays on board, and is made a captive: out of clean shaved rods of right-whale bone, and cross-beams of sperm whale ivory, the carpenter makes a pagoda-looking cage for it.
"No, sir, 'tis a right-whale," answered Tom; "I saw his spout; he threw up a pair of as pretty rainbows as a Christian would wish to look at. He's a raal oil-butt, that fellow!"
The trade thus rudely checked had for the year preceding the outbreak of the war handled 45,000 barrels of sperm oil, 8500 barrels of right-whale oil, and 75,000 pounds of bone. The enforced idleness of the Revolutionary days was not easily forgotten by the whalemen, and their discontent and complainings were great when the nation was again embroiled in war with Great Britain in 1812.
“Yes! that’s a right-whale,” exclaimed Hearne. “You might tell it by its thick, short spout. See, that one on the port side, like a column of smoke, that’s the spout of a right-whale! And all this is passing before our very noses -a dead loss! Why, it’s like emptying money-bags into the sea not to fill one’s barrels when one can.
Though Wilbur was not satisfied with Hodgson's explanation, it was the only one he ever heard. When he had spoken of the matter, Hodgson had nodded his head. "Sulphur-bottoms," he said. "Sulphur-bottoms?" "Yes; they're a kind of right-whale; they get barnacles and a kind of marine lice on their backs, and come up and scratch them selves against a ship's keel, just like a hog under a fence."
It is used in lamps and for machinery, being much cheaper than the sperm, and, for both purposes, better than the right-whale oil. They bottle it up in large bamboos, six or eight feet long; and these form part of the circulating medium of Tahiti. To return to the ship. The wind dying away, evening came on before we drew near the island. But we had it in view during the whole afternoon.
Word Of The Day