THE WHALE. 119 



The whale being very nearly of the same specific 

 gravity as sea-water, (some few individuals sinking, 

 and others barely floating when dead) the weight 

 may be calculated with considerable precision. 

 The body of the whale may be divided into three 

 segments, forming tolerably regular geometric solids. 

 First; the head a parabolic conoid, which in the 

 sucking-whale is four feet in diameter, and five and 

 a half feet in height; its solid contents about thirty- 

 four and a half cubic feet. Secondly; the middle 

 segment, extending from the head to the thickest 

 part of the body: this is a frustum of a cone in the 

 sucking-whale, three feet in length, and four to 

 five feet in diameter, producing a solid content of 

 forty-eight cubic feet. Thirdly; the posterior seg- 

 ment, extending from the greatest circumference to 

 the tail: this segment is a paraboloid or parabolic 

 conoid, with its smaller end truncated. Its length 

 in the sucking-whale is eight feet; its diameters one 

 and five feet; and its solid contents eighty- one and a 

 half cubic feet. And to these products maybe add- 

 ed about ten cubic feet, the estimated bulk of the 

 fins and tail, which make an amount of 174 cubic 

 feet; this sum, divided by 35, the number of cubic 

 feet of sea- water in the Greenland ocean, in a ton 

 weight, gives the weight of the animal five tons 

 within a cubic foot. 



One of the largest mysticete, of sixty feet in 

 length, the head twenty feet in length, by twelve 

 feet in diameter, the middle section six feet by thir- 



