The Marine Mammals Of The Northwestern Coast Of North America: Charles M. Scammon

Charles Melville Scammon is clearly "the Audubon" of marine mammals.

The Marine Mammals Of The Northwestern Coast Of North America, Charles M Scammon, published 1874; new foreword c. 2007.

I have the softcover. That's too bad. This is a book that should be sold in only two formats:

• a leather-bound, collector's book for only the most elite libraries; and, 
• a water-proof, handbook/field guide

It's an incredible book.

Writers in the 19th century could be a bit wordy, a bit "flowery," but they also had a flair for "cutting to the chase."  Scammon "cuts to the chase" in his opening sentence, Part I -- Cetacea. Introduction:

The order of Cetacea, as established by naturalists, includes all species of mammalia which have been created for inhabiting the water only; and although their forms bear a strong resemblance to those of the ordinary piscatory tribe, still they are animals having warm blood, breathing by means of lungs, and frequently coming to the surface of the water to respire.

And that pretty much sums it up: the Cetaceans.

Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published in 1859. It would be interesting to know if Charles Scammon read Darwin's book, and if he did, how much it might have influenced him.

Scammon notes there are three groups of cetaceans:

• the whalebone whales, which we now refer to as baleen whales;
• the cachelot or sperm whales, which we now refer to as toothed whales; and,
• the dolphins.

These are the whales which each get a chapter to themselves:

• the Californian gray whale
• the finback whale
• the humpback whale
• the sharp-headed finner whale
• the bowhead, or great polar whale
• the right whale of the north-western coast
• the sulfurbottom whale

The dolphins:

• the blackfish
• the orca, or killer whale
• the whitefish, or white whale
• the bay porpoise
• the striped or common porpoise
• Baird's Dolphin
• the right whale porpoise
• the cowfish
• the whiteheaded or mottled grampus
• the bottlenosed grampus
• the Panama grampus
• the Puget Sound grampus
• the San Diego Bay grampus
• the squareheaded grampus
• the brownsided dolphin of Santa Barbara Channel
• the narwhal

Part II: -- Pinnipedia

The following each get their own chapters:

• the sea elephant
• the sea lion
• the banded seal
• fur seals
• the leopard seal
• the sea otter
• the walrus

Part III -- The American Whale-Fishery (the whaling industry)

It will be interesting to see how Scammon's discussion fits what I've learned about the US whaling industry from the museum in New Bedford, and my readings since then.