HARDWI CKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P. 



to the apparently ungainly head of the Sperm Whale, 

 Beals remarks as follows : — " One of the peculiarities 

 of the Sperm Whale, which strikes at first sight every 

 beholder, is the apparently disproportionate and un- 

 wieldy bulk of the head ; but this peculiarity, instead 

 of being, as might be supposed, an impediment to the 

 freedom of the animal's motion in its native element, 

 is, in fact, on the contrary, in some respects, very 

 conducive to its lightness and agility, if such a term 

 can with propriety be applied to such an enormous 

 creature ; for a great part of the bulk of the head is 

 made up of a thin membranous case, containing, 

 during life, a thin oil, of much less specific gravity 

 than water, below which is again the junk, which, 

 although heavier than the spermaceti, is still lighter 

 than the element in which the whale moves ; conse- 

 quently the head, taken as a whole, is lighter specifi- 

 cally than any other part of the body, and will always 

 have a tendency to rise at least so far above the sur- 

 face as to elevate the nostril or ' blow-hole ' suffi- 

 ciently for all purposes of respiration ; and more than 

 this, a very slight effort on the part of the fish would 

 only be necessary to raise the whole of the anterior 

 flat surface of the nose out of the water. In case the 

 animal should wish to increase his speed to the ut- 

 most, the narrow inferior surface, which has been 

 before stated to bear some resemblance to the cut- 

 water of a ship, and which would, in fact, answer the 

 same purpose to the whale, would be the only part 

 exposed to the pressure of the water in front, enabling 

 him thus to pass with the greatest celerity and ease 

 through the boundless track of his wide domain " 

 (p. 28). When swimming at ease, the Sperm Whale 

 keeps just below the surface of the water, and goes 

 at about three or four miles an hour ; but on an 

 emergency it is able to attain a speed of ten or 

 twelve miles an hour : it then progresses by means 

 of powerful lateral strokes of its tail, and alter- 

 nately rises and sinks at each stroke. In progress- 

 ing in this manner, the blunt anterior surface of 

 the head never presents itself directly to the water ; 

 the animal's body being in an oblique position, it is 

 only the angle formed by the inferior surface which 

 first presents itself, and this, which Beals likens to the 

 " cutwater " of a ship, offers the least possible amount 

 of resistance. When undisturbed, the Sperm Whale 

 rises to the surface to breathe about once every hour. 

 Beals says the regularity with which every action 

 connected with its breathing is performed is remark- 

 able ; the time occupied differs slightly in each indi- 

 vidual, but each one is minutely regular in the per- 

 formance of every action connected with respiration, 

 so that the whalers know how long it will remain 

 beneath the surface before reappearing to renew its 

 supply of air. A full-grown ' ' bull, " he says, remains 

 at the surface ten or eleven minutes, during which he 

 makes sixty or seventy expirations ; after which he 

 disappears, to return again to the surface in one hour 

 and ten minutes. The blowing is not accompanied 



by any sound, and notwithstanding the wonderful 

 accounts of its roarings and bellowings, the Sperm 

 Whale may be said to be an absolutely silent animal. 

 The females and young males are gregarious, but are 

 found in separate herds or "schools," as they are 

 called. A " school " will sometimes consist of five or 

 six hundred individuals. The herds of females are 

 always accompanied by from one to three large 

 "bulls"; but the full-grown males are said to be 

 generally solitary in their habits, except on certain 

 occasions, when it is supposed they are migrating 

 from one feeding-place to another. The majority of 

 those which occur on our coast are these solitary 

 males ; when they visit us in herds, as mentioned by 

 Sir Thomas Browne, they are all probably females 

 or young males. The "bulls" are veiy fierce and 

 jealous, and fight fiercely. The females show great 

 attachment to each other and to their young, so much 

 so that, one being wounded, the others of the herd 

 remain and fall a comparatively easy prey. The 

 young males, on the other hand, are very wary and 

 difficult of approach, and should one be attacked, the 

 others immediately take the alarm and retreat . The 

 female produces one young one, rarely two, at a time, 

 and breeds at all seasons of the year. Their senses 

 of sight and hearing are very acute, and after being 

 once unsuccessfully attacked, they are very difficult 

 and dangerous to approach. 



The food of the Sperm Whale consists almost en- 

 tirely of Cephalopode Mollnsks (cuttle-fish), although 

 at times, when feeding near the shore, it has been 

 known to take fish as large as salmon. It is, how- 

 ever, essentially a deep-water species, but how it con- 

 trives to capture such active prey as fish seems difficult 

 to conceive. Beals is, however, of opinion that the 

 Whale sinks to a proper depth in the sea, where re- 

 maining as quiet as possible, and opening wide its 

 mouth, the prey are attracted by the glistening white 

 colour of its lining membrane, curiosity leading them 

 to destruction ; for no sooner have a sufficient number 

 entered his mouth than the Whale, rapidly closing his 

 under jaw, they are made prisoners and swallowed. 

 {To be continued.") 



THE HISTORY OF SALAD PLANTS. 



By H. G. Glasspoole. 



CRESSES. 



CRESS is a general name of a number of plants, 

 mostly, if not all, belonging to the Cntciferce, 

 and possessing, in common with the plants of the same 

 order, pungent and aromatic qualities. The ancients, 

 we are told, ate cresses with their salads to counter- 

 act the cold nature of lettuces and other herbs. 



The garden cress, Lepidinm sativum, appears to 

 have been known to Theophrastus (see article in 

 Rees's "Encyclopaedia"), but the tribe of Nasturtium, 

 to which the Water-cress belongs, was, no doubt, 



