A bottlenose porpoise fishery at Cape Hatteras—“The Porpoise in Captivity,” by Dr. Charles H. Townsend 278 CHAPTER XXV THE BLACKFISH An exciting blackfish hunt in the Faroe Islands—Habits 291 CHAPTER XXVI THE PASSING OF THE WHALE The commercial extermination of the right whale—Capture of the bowhead—“Whaling in Newfoundland,” by Dr. F. A. Lucas—The American Pacific coast—Sub-Antarctic whaling—Japan—Needed legislation 296 APPENDIX Classification of the Cetacea—Diagnoses of the whales described in this book—The skeleton of the Cetacea—Adaptation as shown by the Cetacea 307 INDEX 323 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE A modern shore whaling station at Kyuquot, Vancouver Island, B. C. 9 The _Orion_ with three humpback whales at Sechart, Vancouver Island 10 The harpoon-gun on the _Rex Maru_ 13 The harpoon is tipped with a hollow point called the “bomb,” which is filled with powder and ignited by a time fuse 15 The harpoon after it has been fired into the body of a whale 15 A trial shot with the harpoon-gun 16 A near view as the gun is fired at a target 18 Captain Balcom at the gun on the _Orion_ 23 Loading the harpoon-gun 26 Model of a humpback whale in the American Museum of Natural History 28 “The man in the barrel called down, ‘Whales on the port bow’!” 29 “Two men with long-handled knives began to cut off the lobes of the tail” 32 “A hollow, spear-pointed tube of steel ... was jabbed well down into the whale’s abdomen, the engines started, and the animal slowly filled with air” 34 Flensing a whale at one of the Vancouver Island stations 36 A humpback whale “sounding” 39 A humpback whale with a very white breast 40 “The tail of the humpback as the animal ‘sounds’ looks like a great butterfly which has alighted upon the water” 43 “The flukes of a big humpback just disappearing below the surface on the starboard side” 47