240 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing matter to trace the adaptation of the nostrils to the aquatic life 

 and breathing habits of these animals. 



There are natural history text-books still extant in which a very 

 familiar error regarding the " blowing " of the whales is propagated 

 an error which, like many other delusions of popular kind, has become 

 so fossilized, so to speak, that it is difficult to convince believers of its 

 falsity. A manual of natural history, of no ancient date, lies before 

 me as I write, and when I turn to the section which treats of the 

 whales, I find an illustration of a Greenland whale, which is represented 

 as lying high and dry on the beach, but which, despite its stranded 

 state, appears in the act of vigorously puffing streams of water from 

 the blowholes on the top of its head. To say the least of it, such an 

 illustration is simply fictitious, and might safely be discarded as of 

 purely inventive kind, were it only from the fact of its supposing a 

 whale to be provided with some mysterious reservoir of water from 

 which it could eject copious streams, even when removed from the sea. 

 The common notion regarding the "blowing" of the whale appears to 

 be that which credits the animal with inhaling large quantities of wa- 

 ter into its mouth, presumably in the act of nutrition. This water was 

 then said to escape into the nostrils and to be ejected therefrom in the 

 act of blowing. The behavior of a whale in the open sea at first sight 

 favors this apparently simple explanation. Careering along in the full 

 exercise of its mighty powers, the huge body is seen to dive and to 

 reappear some distance off at the surface, discharging from its nostrils 

 a shower of water and spray. The observation is correct enough as it 

 stands, but the interpretation of the phenomena is erroneous. Apart 

 from the anatomical difficulties in the way of explaining how water 

 from the mouth could escape in such large quantities, and so persist- 

 ently into the nostrils, there is not merely an utter want of purpose in 

 this view of the act of " spouting," but we have also to consider that 

 this act would materially interfere with the breathing of the animal. 

 Hence a more rational exjdanation of what is implied in the " blow- 

 ing" of the whales rests on the simple assertion that the water and 

 spray do not in reality proceed from the blowhole, but consist of 

 water forced upward into the air by the expiratory effort of the ani- 

 mal. The whale begins the expiratory or " breathing-out " action of 

 its lungs just before reaching the surface of the water, and the warm 

 expired air therefore carries up with it the water lying above the head 

 and blowholes of the ascending animal. That this view is correct is 

 rendered highly probable, not merely by the observation of the breath- 

 ing of young whales and porpoises kept in confinement, but also by 

 the fact that the last portion of the " blow " consists of a white silvery 

 spray or vapor, formed by the rapid condensation of the warm air 

 from the lungs as it comes in contact with the colder atmosphere. 

 The water received into the mouth escapes at the sides of the mouth, 

 and does not enter the nostrils at all. 



