MISCELLANY 



125 



and of the humpback for their young is 

 very strong, but the sperm-whale gives no 

 evidence of such fondness. Among sperm- 

 whales there is strict subordination of every 

 herd to its leader, but each right-whale ap- 

 pears to be independent. The male right 

 is smaller than the female, but the reverse 

 is the case for the sperm-whale. The males 

 of the sperm-whale engage in furious con- 

 flicts with each other, and Captain Pease 

 has often found clear evidence of these 

 fights in the scarred bodies of captured 

 whales. In the Nantucket Museum may 

 be seen two specimens of the lower jaw 

 damaged in conflict, one of them being bent 

 laterally into one turn of a spiral. Captain 

 Pease has often witnessed the attack of the 

 sperm on the right and humpback whale. 

 Fifty or more of them will join in the attack, 

 leaping many feet out of the water and fall- 

 ing on their victim. Squid forms the prin- 

 cipal food of the sperm-whale, and Captain 

 Pease once saw the head of a squid, as 

 large as a sugar hogshead, which had been 

 chopped off by the closure of the sperm- 

 whale's jaws. 



The captain is positive that a trace of 

 hair is to be found within the skin of the 

 right-whale, and says that, if the fresh skin 

 be scraped, the inner section will show a 

 trace of hair. If this whale is the descend- 

 ant of a land-mammal, we should expect to 

 find just such a trace of hair. Then, too, 

 there is a sperm-whale's tooth at Nantucket 

 which has two fangs, and it is stated that 

 the other teeth of the animal to which this 

 belonged had likewise two fangs. The au- 

 thor suspects here a case of reversion. Ac- 

 cording to Captain Pease, right -whales 

 attain adult size in three years, though he 

 admits that they may grow very slowly for 

 some years longer. 



Cruelties of the Seal-Fishery . The cruel 

 and useless destruction of young seals, re- 

 sulting from the way in which the seal- 

 fisheries are at present conducted, has called 

 out a vigorous protest from Mr. Frank 

 Buckkind, coupled with a recommendation 

 that the governments concerned unite in a 

 system of regulations that shall in future 

 prevent the barbarities and wastefulness 

 which, if continued, must soon put an end 

 to an important industry. On the authority 



of Captain David Gray, commander of the 

 screw-steamer Eclipse, of the Scottish seal- 

 ing-fleet, we are told that operations begin 

 about the 20th of March, or within a few 

 days after the young are born. The har- 

 pooner chooses a place where a number of 

 young seals are lying, knowing that soon 

 the mothers will make their appearance. 

 Of these, as many as 40,000 were killed last 

 year, not to speak of those that were 

 wounded and scared away. Thus tens of 

 thousands of young seals are left mother- 

 less. " It is horrible," says Captain Gray, 

 " to see the young ones trying to suck the 

 carcasses of their mothers, their eyes start- 

 ing out of the sockets, looking the very 

 picture of famine. They crawl over and 

 over them until quite red with blood, poking 

 them with their noses, no doubt wondering 

 why they are not getting their usual feed, 

 uttering painful cries the while. The noise 

 they make is something dreadful. If one 

 could imagine himself surrounded by four 

 or five hundred thousand human babies all 

 crying at the pitch of their voices, he would 

 have some idea of it. Their cry is very 

 like an infant's. These motherless seals 

 collect into lots of five or six, and crawl 

 about the ice, their heads fast becoming the 

 biggest part of their bodies, searching to 

 find the nourishment they stand so much in 

 want of. The females are very affectionate 

 toward their young." Immense numbers 

 of young seals are in this way starved to 

 death ; and, even if slaughtered on the spot, 

 are comparatively worthless, as their bodies 

 contain little or no oil, and their skins bring 

 but a very low price. According to Mr. 

 Buckland, if the commencement of the 

 work were postponed for only three or four 

 weeks, the young would then be old enough 

 to take care of themselves, and, even if 

 killed, which he strongly objects to, at this 

 early period of their lives, their bodies 

 would have a greatly increased value. 



The Failure of Car-Axles. The fracture 

 of car-axles, and the frequent accidents 

 arising therefrom, are due, it appears, in 

 the majority of cases, to imperfect con- 

 struction, which may be readily detected 

 by applying the proper tests. As an ex- 

 ample of the kind of work that manufac- 

 turers sometimes turn out to railway com- 



