246 THE ocean. 



Every thing connected with the breathing of the 

 Sperm Whale is performed with a regularity that 

 is very remarkable. The length of time he remains 

 at the surface, the number of "spoutings" made at 

 each time, the length of interval between the spouts, 

 the time he remains below the surface, before again 

 rising to breathe, are all, when he is undisturbed, 

 as regular in succession and duration as it is pos- 

 sible to imagine. This is a circumstance of the 

 greatest value to the whaler; for though there is 

 considerable variation in these particulars in different 

 animals, yet such is the precision with which each 

 maintains his own rates of movement, that when 

 the periods of any particular Whale have been ob- 

 served, the whaler can calculate, even to a minute, 

 when it will reappear, and how long it will continue 

 at the surface. A large male, called "a bull whale," 

 usually remains at the surface about ten minutes, 

 during which he spouts sixty or seventy times; 

 then, to use the nautical phrase, " his spoutings are 

 out," the head gradually sinks, the "small" is pro- 

 jected from the water, and presently the "flukes" 

 of the tail are raised high in the air, and the animal 

 descends perpendicularly to an unknown depth, re- 

 maining below from an hour to an hour and twenty 

 minutes, when he comes up to respire again. 



The regular recurrence of these motions can be 

 depended on only when the Whale is perfectly at 

 ease; for, if alarmed, he dives immediately, rising, 

 however, soon again to complete his spoutings. 

 When "going head out," also, he spouts at every 

 projection of the head, and much more hurriedly 



