296 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



Whales Are Mammals 



A school of whales playing at sea is a thrilling 

 sight that one never forgets. At a distance, about all 

 that can be seen is a black hulk or two, with occa- 

 sional spouting here and there. But, if one is 

 fortunate enough to be close at hand when the whales 

 are spouting, the sight is thrilling. Can you imagine 

 an animal seventy-five feet long and ten feet wide, 

 with lungs big enough to exhale a cloud of vapor .'^ 

 Many persons not familiar with the whale think that 

 it spouts water. Unless you are lucky enough to get 

 close to it you cannot see that the "spout" is really 

 condensing vapor. The whale takes a very deep 

 breath and then sinks below the surface, swimming 

 hither and thither in search of food. During sub- 

 mersion, the air in the lungs becomes warm because 

 of the heat of the whale's body, and likewise satur- 

 ated with water-vapor from the moisture in the 

 lungs. When the whale comes to the surface to ex- 

 hale, he blows a large volume of this warm moisture- 

 laden air into the much cooler atmosphere. This 

 causes the moisture to condense in fine droplets, giv- 

 ing the appearance of a spray of water. 



In many respects the whale is the most interesting 

 and wonderful of all living creatures. Although it 

 looks like a fish because it is adapted to live in the 

 sea, it is really a mammal and resembles a cow more 

 than a fish. In the illustrations you see that whales 

 are fish-like in form, with an enormous head and 

 almost no neck at all. They have very large mouths 

 which make them look rather ferocious, but you 



