8 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



gives such an excellent description, formed one of 

 the same party as the eight or nine mentioned by Sir 

 T. Browne. In May, 1652, Mr. Arthur Bacon 

 writes to Sir T. Browne about the sperm whale cast 

 on shore at Yarmouth, but the actual date of the 

 occurrence is not given. This is the last record of 

 this species being found on the Norfolk coast, with 

 which I am acquainted : it has, however, occurred 

 many times since, singly or in small parties, on other 

 parts of the coast ; the last instance, I believe, being 

 in July, 1871, when one was stranded on the shore 

 of the Isle of Skye. Of the osteology of the Sperm 

 Whale, Professor Flower has given an exhaustive 

 account in a paper published in the " Transactions 



very remarkable appearance, the truncated form of 

 the snout looking as though it were cut off at right- 

 angles to the body : at the upper angle is situated the 

 single blow-hole. The juncture of the head with the 

 body is the thickest portion, and the body decreases 

 little in size till the "hump," which is situated in the 

 place of the dorsal fin, is reached ; from this point 

 it rapidly diminishes to the tail. The flukes of the 

 tail are from twelve to fourteen feet in breadth, and 

 the two flippers each about six feet long. The under 

 jaw is pointed, and about two feet shorter than the 

 upper ; it is furnished with about twenty-five large 

 conical teeth on each side ; but the number is not 

 constant, nor is it always the same on each side. In 



Fig. 4. Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephaltis, Linn.)- 



of the Zoological Society," vol. vi., and of its habits 

 a very interesting account is given by Thomas Beals, 

 who, in the capacity of surgeon on board ships 

 employed in the South Sea fishery, had unusual 

 opportunities of observing this remarkable animal. 

 He published a book entitled " The Natural History 

 of the Sperm Whale," to which I am largely indebted 

 for what I shall have to say about this species. 



The colour of the Sperm Whale is black above and 

 grey beneath, the colours gradually shading into each 

 other. The full-grown male is about sixty feet 

 long ; the females are much smaller and more slender 

 than the males. The head, which constitutes more 

 than one-third of the whole of the animal, presents a 



the upper jaw are no visible teeth, but those of the 

 lower jaw shut into corresponding depressions in the 

 upper. The tongue is small, and, like the lining of 

 the mouth, of a white colour. The upper part of the 

 head, called the "case," contains the "spermaceti," 

 which upon the death of the animal granulates into 

 a yellowish substance. Beals says that a large whale 

 not unfrequently contains a ton of spermaceti. Be- 

 neath the "case" is situated the "junk," which 

 consists of a dense cellular mass, containing oil and 

 spermaceti. The blubber is about fourteen inches 

 thick on the breast, and in most other parts of the 

 body from eight to eleven inches. By the whalers 

 this covering is called the " blanket." With regard 



