Whale Hunting With Gun and Camera

   Roy Chapman Andrews was not always the legendary Dragon Hunter or even the ace explorer for the prestigious American Museum of Natural History. He actually began his association with the Museum as one of their janitors. But he quickly worked that into becoming an assistant in the Museum's taxidermy department. Through that job he received an assignment to bring in the skeleton of a whale beached on Long Island. When the Museum recieved  a grant in 1908 specifically for the study of cetaceans, Andrews jumped at the opportunity.

   For the next 8 years Andrews traveled in the world of whalers, because whalers were virtually the only way to study the animals while they were alive. In addition, the close relationship between Hunter and Hunted established an intimate bond of knowledge that scientific observation could not match.

   Andrews' travels took him twice around the world, to whaling ships and stations in Canada, Alaska, Japan, and Korea. Besides adding immensely to the knowledge about cetaceans, he described the fascinating world of the whaling industry as well as the world market for whale products.  It should be no surprise that Andrews established himself as the world's leading  authority on whales.

   Andrews book is a fascinating look at whales and whaling told from a time when little was really known about either. It is also a fascinating look at the beginnings of Andrews career as an explorer and seeing those early traits that would mature and lead him to becoming one of modern history's most extraordinary field naturalists.