Identifier: marinemammalsofn00scam (find matches)
Title: The marine mammals of the north-western coast of North America, described and illustrated; together with an account of the American whale-fishery
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Scammon, Charles Melville, 1825-1911
Subjects: Marine mammals Cetacea Sealing Whaling Whales Dolphins
Publisher: San Francisco, J.H. Carmany New York, Putnam
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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; all, likewise, areinfested by the same j:>arasites. As to the dorsalprotuberance called the hump, it is, as has beenpreviously stated, of no regular shape or size,but is nearly of a uniform height; the posterioredge is sometimes tipped with white. As to thetubercles on the head and lij)s, they were pres-ent on all we have examined, twenty or morespecimens; those about the head are alwayswell - developed, while those upon the lips, inmany individuals, are scarcely perceptible. Insome instances, however, they equal or exceedthose which crown the skull. There is no reg-ularity in the number of gular folds, which, asfar as observed, vary in number from eighteento twenty-six. In some cases they run parallelto each other; but usually there are several thateither cross or terminate near the pectorals.The animals are all described as being blackabove; but in the examples which have beenexamined, there was not one, when closely scru-tinized, which did not reveal some slight marksof white.
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CD ft R Ko < wfq § o CQ PQo PQ ft THE HUMPBACK WHALE. 45 grations with the rest of its wandering companions, and the time of passingPoint Pinos (the outer headland of the bay), was ascertained to be during ornear the month of September. Repeated efforts were made, from year to year,to capture the member of the gam thus distinguished by a white hump; butit was only when the bomb - gun and bomb - lance had come into use that itsdestruction was effected. The animal proved to be of enormous size, but itsproduct of oil was comparatively small, amounting only to about eighty - fivebarrels. After many years study of the characteristic habits of the Humpback, we be-lieve that the females of this species resort in large numbers to favorite inlandwaters, connected with the ocean, to bring forth their young ; but there are manyexceptions to this rule, incident to their roving disposition. They are found ondifferent coasts in all accessible latitudes, from the new-born calf to the extremelyag

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