CHAPTER II.

The Whale.--Its Zoology.--The largest known Animal.--Sperm Whale.--Right Whale.--Finback.--Bowhead.

The Whale is the general name of an order of animals inhabiting the ocean, arranged in zoology under the name of _Cete_, or _Cetacae_, and belonging to the class _Mammalia_ in the Linnaean system. This animal is named whale from roundness, or from rolling.

"While living in part or wholly in the ocean, it differs in many important respects from the fish tribes, and it is these peculiarities which render it a link between the creature of the land and of the sea. While it has the power of locomotion in the water, like other fishes, yet in other particulars it has no affinity with them; it is as much a mammal as the ox, or the elephant, or the horse--having warm blood, breathing air, bringing forth living young, and suckling them with true milk."

The whale is the largest of all known animals. Some remarks upon the whale and its varieties will form the subject of the present chapter.

1. THE SPERM WHALE. The _Cachalot_, or _Physeter Macrocephalus._ The principal species are the black-headed, with a dorsal fin, and the round-headed, without a fin on the back, and with fistula in the snout. This whale is known at a distance by the peculiarity of his "spoutings" or "blows." He can be easily detected by whalemen, if he happens to be in company with other species of whales. He blows the water or vapor from his nostrils in a single column, to the height, perhaps, of twelve feet, inclining in a forward direction in an angle of forty-five degrees with the horizon, and visible for several miles. There is also a wonderful regularity as to time in which he "blows"--perhaps once in ten minutes. He remains on the surface of the water from forty-five to sixty minutes, and under water about the same time. Unless the whale is frightened, whalemen make quite correct calculation as to the chances of overtaking him, or meeting him, or when he will rise to the surface after he has "turned flukes."

When the sperm whale is near, he can be easily distinguished by the form of his head, unlike any other variety of whale. Its head is enormous in bulk, being fully more than one third of the whole length of its body; and it ends like an abrupt and steep promontory, and is so hard for several feet from its front that it is quite difficult, if not impossible, for an iron to enter it--as impervious, indeed, to a harpoon as a bale of cotton.

Besides, the sperm whale has a hump on his back, which distinguishes him from others. This hump is farther forward than the fin on the finback whale.

Sperm whales have been captured from seventy to ninety feet in length, and from thirty to forty-five feet in circumference round the largest part of their bodies. It is supposed by whalemen, from their appearance, that they live, or some of them at least, to a great age. One writer on this subject thought that the sperm whale would attain the age of many hundred years, and even to a thousand years. This, however, is mere conjecture, because there are no dates or facts upon which to found a correct opinion.

Some whales have been taken having their teeth worn off level with the gums; and then, again, in other instances, part of their teeth have been broken off, or torn out by some violent effort.

The whole number of teeth in a sperm whale is about forty-two; they are wholly in the lower jaw, which alone is movable, with the exception of a natural movement of the entire head of the fish.

The teeth admirably fit into sockets in the upper jaw. When the whale is in search for his food, or contending with his foes, he drops his lower jaw, if he sees fit, nearly to a right angle with the under part of his body, and then brings his jaws together with incredible energy and quickness.

Sperm whales engage in fearful and dreadful struggles and conflicts with each other. One was captured, a few years since, having his lower jaw, which was more than fifteen feet long, and studded with sharp-pointed teeth, twisted entirely around at a right angle with his body; he was swimming in that manner when he was harpooned. This was an instance of a most desperate encounter. Another whale was captured having a part of his enormous jaw broken entirely off. The front and sides of their heads, as well as their bodies, not unfrequently exhibit deep lines or furrows produced by the teeth of some powerful antagonist.

It is supposed that, as the sperm whale advances in age, his head not only retains its ordinary proportions, and to appearance becomes enlarged, but the truth is, the other parts of his body, especially his extremities, do actually diminish in bulk and circumference.

In some instances, more oil has been taken out of the head of a sperm whale than from the other part of his body.

The principal food of the sperm whale is "squid," a molluscous animal. "This is an animal of so curious an order as to merit a word of special notice. The principal peculiarity of this molluscous tribe is the possession of powerful tentacula or arms, ranged round the mouth, and provided with suckers, which give them the power of adhering to rocks or any other substances with surprising tenacity. Some of this tribe attain to a great size, and, as large as the whale is, will furnish it with no contemptible mouthful. In the gullet of one sperm whale, an arm or tentaculum of a sea-squid was found measuring nearly twenty-seven feet long."

Whalemen frequently discover large masses or junks of squid floating about, probably torn in pieces by whales in their search after food. The flesh of the squid is soft, without bones, and somewhat transparent, like the common sunfish seen on our shores. It is said that squid have been seen as large as an ordinary whale. This food for the sperm whale is found in great abundance in the Pacific seas.

2. THE RIGHT WHALE. The whale having this general cognomen belongs to the species of _Balaena Mysticetus_. There are several varieties included in this species, as we shall hereafter observe, and which are distinguished by whalemen both in regard to some external peculiarity as well as the different localities where they are usually found.

The right whale differs from the sperm in the following particulars: his head is sharper, more pointed; he has no "hump" on his back; the column of water which he throws up when he "blows" is divided like the tines of a fork; and it rises from his breathing holes in a perpendicular direction from eight to twenty feet.

The right whale furnishes the bone (baleen) so much in common use, and called "whalebone." This bone is taken from the mouth and upper jaw of the whale, and is set along laterally, in the most exact order, several inches apart, decreasing in length from the centre of his mouth, or the arch of his palate, and becoming shorter farther back, while towards the lips the bone tapers away into mere bristles, forming a loose hanging fringe or border.

At the bottom of this row of bone, where it penetrates the gum, and from eighteen to thirty inches downward, we find a material that resembles coarse hair, entwining and interlacing the bone, and thus forming a sort of network, and so thick that, when the whale closes his lips to press out the water, the smallest kind of fish are caught in the meshes, and are unable to escape.

Indeed, the edges of the bones, or slabs, as they might be termed, are fringed with this coarse hair, and it extends to their extremities, as may be seen in the rough state when landed from whale ships.

The length of the bones or slabs[I] vary in a great measure according to the size of the fish, though some varieties of this species have larger and better bone than others. The value of the bone is enhanced, as a general thing, in proportion to its length.

The principal food of the right whale is a very small, red fish, called "brit." Immense shoals of these fish are seen on whale grounds; and the water to a great distance, even for miles, becomes colored with them.

When the whale takes his food, he throws open his lips, or lets them fall, and, swimming with great velocity, he scoops up an infinite number of these small fish and others that accompany them, some of them scarcely larger than half of an ordinary sized pea; he then closes his lips, and pressing out the water from his mouth, every particle of solid matter is securely retained within.

"The mouth of the whale is an organ of very wonderful construction. In a large specimen of the race, it may measure, when fully opened, about sixteen feet long, twelve feet high, and ten feet wide--an apartment, in truth, of very good dimensions. Notwithstanding the enormous bulk of this creature, its throat is so narrow that it would choke upon a morsel fitted for the deglutition of an ox. Its food, therefore, must be, as it really is, in very small particles. Such is the wonderful contrivance of nature, and in which we can discover an instance of remarkable wisdom in the Creator and Provider of his creatures."

The right whale does not fight or contend with his mouth or head, as the sperm whale does; but his means of attack and defence are chiefly in his enormous flukes. He will, however, when struck, "root around," as whalemen say, and not unfrequently in this manner upset a boat.

This kind of whale, and other varieties, distinguished by the baleen or bone, have no regular time for remaining on the surface of the water after they "breach," nor in remaining under water after they "turn flukes."

The length of a large right whale is about eighty feet, and some have yielded their captors two hundred and fifty to three hundred barrels of oil.

Such a whale would perhaps weigh not far from eighty tons. Allowing one ox to weigh twenty-five hundred or three thousand pounds, he would weigh down more than fifty of such animals.

And what a sublime sight it must be--and whalemen have often observed it--to see such a prodigious living mass leaping right into the air, clear, altogether out of the water, so that the horizon can be seen between the fish and the ocean! These stupendous exercises and gambols of such huge creatures are termed "breaching."

Sometimes a whale will turn its head downwards, and, moving its tremendous tail high in the air, will lash the water with violence, raising a cloud of vapor, and sending a loud report to the distance of two or three miles. This is called "lobtailing" by whalemen.

The oil of this species of whale is less valuable than the sperm. The "whalebone," which now has an advanced price in the market far beyond any previous value attached to it, is obtained from the mouth of the whale about in proportion of a thousand pounds to a hundred barrels of oil.

3. THE FINBACK WHALE. This is a smooth, slim fish--smaller usually than a right whale. He is found in nearly all latitudes. His head and mouth are of the same construction with those of the right whale. This whale is known by whalemen, when seen at a suitable distance, by his "blows." The column of vapor rises in a single stream in a vertical or perpendicular direction. This fish is termed _finback_ on account of a fin on his back, differing in this particular from all other species of whale. The oil obtained from him is of the same quality as the right whale oil.

4. BOWHEAD WHALE. This whale is smooth all over, having no "bonnet on his head," as whalemen say, and as right whales have. Their heads differ in shape somewhat from other whales, and hence the name _bowhead_ given to them. This species of whale, so far as known, has never been found except in the Ochotsk Sea and Arctic Ocean.

The Greenland whale, and also the species called the _great rorqual_, are doubtless included in the name which our whalemen give to the bowhead.

There are several other varieties of the whale tribe, and different names are attached to them, such as the "scragg," the "humpback," &c.; but the foregoing are all the kinds whether of interest or profit to whalemen.