116 ARCTIC ZOOLOGY. 



When the whale is struck, arterial blood flows profusely. 

 When the progress of destruction advances far enough to 

 require the exhausted animal to respire more frequently, he 

 blows arterial blood mixed with water ; and when the lance 

 has been repeatedly plunged into his vitals, the column 

 ascending from the blow holes (spiracles) is of a vivid red, 

 compared as it has been, not unaptly, to the flame issuing 

 from a furnace : but when the arterial current is exhausted, 

 and the animal is nearly subdued, then the column assumes 

 a darker hue ; and as death is nearer, it becomes a deep 

 brown purple, till Avith one immense effort of expiration the 

 triumph is decided. At this signal the hunters raise the 

 shout of death, and proceed to tow away their enormous 

 captive. 



This question narrows exceedingly, in ordinary view, if 

 the chambers of the heart be considered decisive of the 

 fact. Such an immense supply of arterial blood would 

 require an enlarged cavity for its reception and further 

 distribution; but here again a difliiculty arises, with regard 

 to the uses of such numerous blood-vessels as the spinal 

 canal and the foramina of the bones of the head present. 

 The examination of the whale's heart exhibits no deviation 

 from the ordinary construction of that viscus in other mam- 

 malious animals. As it lives always in the water, it would 

 require the transit of blood by the foramen ovale, much 

 more than the seal, were such necessary : but no such 



