FAMILY BAL^ENID^E. 129 



abundance in a large cavity in the upper part of the head, above the brain. It is also obtained 

 from the blubber, which varies in thickness from eight to fourteen inches. A moderate sized 

 whale will yield fifty to eighty barrels. In a few rare cases, we have known them to furnish 

 one hundred and twenty barrels. 



Although a timid animal, the Sperm Whale will sometimes turn with fury upon its pur- 

 suers, and destroy boats and men. Upon one occasion, a large whale attacked the whale-ship 

 Essex, stove in its bows, when she filled and sunk ; the crew took to the boats, and after 

 unheard of suffering, landed on the coast of Peru ; three only of the crew survived. 



The Sperm Whale was formerly numerous on our coast, where it is still occasionally cap- 

 tured. Sixty years ago, the pursuit of the whale was considered so characteristic of American 

 hardihood and enterprise, as to have elicited from the English orator Burke the following elo- 

 quent tribute : " While we are carrying on the whale fishery under the arctic circle, we hear 

 " that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold ; that they are at the antipodes, 

 " and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south. Falkland Island, which seems too remote 

 " and too romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting place 

 " for their victorious industry. Nor is the equatorial heat more discouraging to them than the 

 " accumulated winter of both poles. We learn that while some draw the line or strike the 

 " harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game 

 " along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed with their fisheries ; no climate that 

 " is not witness of their toil. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the dextrous and firm 

 " sagacity of English enterprise ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the 

 " extent to which it has been pursued by this recent people ; a people who are still in the 

 " gristle, and not hardened into manhood." Since that period, how extended the field of our 

 labors ! The broad Atlantic has become too limited an arena for exertion. A new antarctic 

 continent has been discovered and coasted, among the thick-ribbed ice. The Gallipagos, 

 New-Zealand, the Coast of Japan, are but resting places, and the farthest limits of ocean only, 

 bound the ardor of our daring navigators. 



GENUS RORQUALUS. Knox. 



Head not disproportionately large. Jaws somewhat pointed, and rostrated. An acute pro- 

 tuberance on the back, resembling a dorsal fin. No teeth. Short baleen in the upper jaw. 

 Deep folds on the throat and abdomen. 



Fauna. 17 



