IN THE WAKE OF A WHALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13744, 8 May 1908, Page 6

IN THE WAKE OF A WHALE.

In two most! interesting articles contributed to the Christchurch Press,-Mr. Edgar Waite, curator of the museum, describes under the title of "In the Wake of a Whale" his experiences when trying to secure the big whale recently cast ashore at Okarito, in Southern AVestland. " ; '..' .., The whale was a specimen of the blue' whale, resembling- the hull of a large vessel. "No words of mine," says the writer, "can convey the slightest idea of the enormous mass spread before us. You may step out 87ft, but you cannot realise the bulk of the creature. It proved to be a cow whale, and is lying on its back. Its lower jaw measures 22Jffc in length, and is ll£f t across. The tail is lying flat on the sand, and the flukes measure 21ft across. It had been dead for some weeks, and could be detected by more than one sense. Several days and irtuch labour were spent in trying to reduce the bulk of the creature. Attention was especially directed to cutting awav the flesh on the lower jaw, and the beach was strewn with masses, each as large as an. ox, and then but half or less had been removed. It is a whalebone whale, but we ascertained that; the ' bono' had gone. Sly opinion is that the whale had been • dead sometime before it was cast on the beach and that as the flesh rotted away the baleen (or whalebone) was washed out. This was a sad loss to the men, for they had an offer of £100 for the whalebone alone. I should imagine, however, that the whalebone was lost "after death. Our object was to secure .the skeleton for the museum, but this proved to be impossible. Whale's flesh is exceedingly tough, and absolutely no tools wore to be obtained, excepting an old hay knife, which, however, did remarkably good service.