WHALES, SEALS AND WALRUSES 



around. A third peculiarity of the sperm whale is called 

 ''mining". The whale, suspended on the surface of the 

 sea with its head projecting, turns round very slowly, 

 again and again, with its small pig-like eyes scanning the 

 horizon as if watching for any approach of danger. 



When whales put forth their full strength they are 

 capable of astounding feats. The explorer Captain H. G. 

 Melsom was once hunting whales off the coast of Siberia. 

 He harpooned a blue whale. The monster ran out three 

 thousand feet of line from the ship. This was the limit, 

 but the ship held fast and the captain ordered full speed 

 astern to try to hold the whale back. The great animal 

 scorned the power of the ship's engines. It towed the 

 vessel forward at a speed of never less than eight knots 

 (nine miles an hour) for over seven hours before it tired, 

 and was at long last dispatched. 



Some of the sleigh dogs of the Scott Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition were standing on an ice-floe when they were 

 attacked by killer whales. The killers, fortunately, 

 launched their attack from under the ice, upwards to- 

 wards the dogs. The ice was two and a half feet thick, 

 but the killers broke right through it, and the dogs only 

 narrowly escaped destruction. The famous Antarctic ex- 

 plorer, H. G. Pouting, was once nearly killed by other 

 whales of the same species, which smashed at the ice on 

 which he was standing with terrific force. 



Spermaceti is the solid constituent of the crude oil of 

 the sperm whale and some other cetaceans. It is a white 

 waxy substance which is extracted by draining off the oil 

 and then washing it again with boiling water and potash. 

 The head of the sperm whale, between the skull and the 

 integuments, is a large "reservoir" of semi-solid head- 

 matter which is rich in spermaceti, but the substance is 

 also contained in the oil of other parts of the body and 

 in the animal's humps. Mainly cetyl palmitate, sper- 

 maceti is white, pearly, semi-transparent, and lighter 

 than water, in which it is insoluble. It has no taste or 



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