34 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



volume of water that it will instantly fill a boat. It 

 is likewise projected with an amazing rapidity, espe- 

 cially when the whale is agitated by any violent feel- 

 ing, and the noise is tremendous to persons unaccus- 

 tomed to it. It has been stated, by some writers, that 

 those cascades are sometimes thrown to the height of 

 thirty or forty feet, communicating a motion to the sur- 

 face of the sea which is perceptible at a distance of six 

 thousand feet. 



The organ by which the whale thus expels the water 

 through his spiracles consists of two large membranous 

 pouches, that lie imbedded beneath the skin, in front of 

 the orifices with which they communicate. Some very 

 strong fleshy fibres proceed from the circumference of 

 the skull, uniting above these pouches, and compressing 

 them violently at the will of the animal. When he 

 wants to get rid of the superfluous quantity of water 

 within his mouth, he swallows it, but at the same time 

 closes his pharynx, or the opening of his gullet, and forces 

 the fluid to ascend through the spiracles, where he raises, 

 by the movement, or impresses on it, a fleshy valve 

 placed in the spiracle itself, towards its superior ex- 

 tremity, below the pouches. The water then penetrates 

 into those pouches, the valve closing, and preventing the 

 water re-entering the mouth ; and the animal, compress- 

 ing the pouches with violence, ejects the water to a 

 height proportioned to the force of the compression * 



Bulky as the whale is, and inactive, or indeed clumsy 

 as it appears to be, one might, at first sight, suppose 

 that all its motions would be sluggish, and its greatest 

 exertions productive of no celerity. The fact is, how- 

 ever, the reverse : a whale extended motionless at the 



Cuvier, Regne Animal, vol.iv. p. 481. 



