Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/266

 26o TEE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

them to their death. To-day one may travel for thousands of miles in the Pacific without sighting a single whale.

The whale has been valued by commercial people for oil extracted from the insolating blubber that envelops the animal's body, and for the baleen, or whalebone, that hangs like a curtain supported from and ex- tending around the upper jaw. The price of these commodities has greatly fluctuated. The price of whalebone has varied from 12 cents per pound in 1821 to $6.70 per pound in 1891. In many catches in past times the blubber only was saved, as the whalebone was not considered worth the trouble in taking, and the space occupied aboard. After the discovery of kerosene, oil became so cheap that only the whalebone was saved from many a catch.

One valuable product has for the most part been overlooked. At the whaling station at Oreen Bay, Spitzbergen, in the year 1910 they were saving the baleen and blubber, but throwing away the meat, which looked like good beef, to the apparent delight of thousands of seagulls. It was estimated that the meat of a whale about sixty feet long, that was being flensed, was equal to that of seventy head of cattle. Is it not criminal to waste this nutritious meat when there are thousands of hungry people? Japan, thrifty and adaptable, has used this valuable food for many years. A few years ago fresh whale meat sold in their market at 7 to 15 cents per pound, according to quality. AU varieties are not equally prized for food. That which can not be sent to the city markets in good condition, owing to the weather or distance, is canned at the stations. It is reported that some whale meat if properly treated can not be distinguished from good beefsteak. A considerable amount of whale meat is utilized by butchers in Norway. Whale meat is also tinned in New Zealand and sold to the native South Sea Islanders.

In spite of the cheapness of oil and the use of steel and featherbone instead of whalebone, the slaughter of the whale continues. The whal- ing station on the Falkland Islands, alone, reported for 1910-1911 whale product worth $2,042,500.

Other marine mammals also share the fate of the whale. The manatee and the dugong live on vegetable food and must flnd their pastures of seaweed, algae, and freshwater plants near the land. This brings them near to their arch-enemy, man, and has resulted in their life histories being almost completed. The dugong, ranging from eight to flfteen feet in length, was very numerous in the tropical seas of the eastern hemisphere. It has always been highly prized for food by the natives of the warm coasts of Asia, Australia and Africa. Although the female dugong produces but one young each year, the extermination of this harmless beast was not threatened till the European appeared, spreading his deadly plague of commercialism. A few manatee may

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