300 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



therefore not hunted as extensively as the larger, 

 more valuable species. 



The only toothed whale considered of much im- 

 portance commercially is the sperm-whale, which 

 is one of the strangest of whales. On each side of 

 the lower jaw it has eighteen to twenty-five massive 

 teeth, which fit into sockets in the upper jaw. The 

 upper teeth are seldom well developed. It feeds on 

 giant squid and cuttlefish, which are usually found 

 in warm currents. Sometimes this large-toothed 

 whale eats sharks and other fishes and large spiny 

 lobsters. This whale is much more ferocious than 

 any of the whalebone whales and occasionally 

 attacks its pursuers, destroying small boats with 

 smashing blows from its powerful tail. Bull sperm- 

 whales attain great size; specimens seventy feet 

 long and weighing about eighty tons are sometimes 

 captured. Its head is enormous, being one third of 

 its total length, and contains an immense tank filled 

 with a liquid wax known as spermaceti. The wax is 

 obtained by cutting an opening in the head-case 

 and dipping out the ten or fifteen barrels of oil that 

 it contains. When freshly taken, the spermaceti is 

 liquid; but on standing, it congeals and after refin- 

 ing becomes the spermaceti of commerce. 



The Manufacture of Whale Products 



The first step in the manufacturing process is 

 that of butchering, or "cutting in" as it is called. 

 This operation was formerly accomplished under 

 the most trying circumstances; the whalers had to 

 work at sea while the whale was floating in the 



