No. 2.] THE WHALE OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. 20T 



and although at other times remarkably timid, manifests great 

 boldness and even ferocity in defending its young. It is gregari- 

 ous, and was formerly found in every part of the ocean, but has 

 been driven by the fishermen from the coasts of Europe and 

 America. It was early followed by the Americans to the South 

 Pacific, and its capture is now prosecuted in India and Africa. 



From the structure of its jaws and the smallness of its throat, 

 it can only feed on the smaller oceanic animals, such as medusae 

 or sea jellies, shrimps, crabs, and some minute mollusca. Hence 

 it differs most materially from the genus cacheJot or sperm whale, 

 which has got a wide gullet, and is capable of swallowing fishes 

 of very considerable size. It feeds abundantly on the mackerel, 

 and a portion of a shark has even been found in its stomach. At 

 first thought it appears very wonderful that so immense an animal 

 as the common whale should have to depend for its subsistence on 

 minute animals, but the wonder ceases when we examine the 

 waters to which they resort, sometimes in very large herds. De 

 Kay says that he has seen off the coast of Brazil hundreds of 

 miles where the mollusca are so numerous as to discolour the 

 water, giving the appearance of wheat scattered over a reddish 

 sandbank ; and Scoresby has estimated that in some parts of the 

 Arctic seas twenty-three quadrillions of such animalculae are dis- 

 tributed over a surface of two square miles. There is very great 

 difierence in the accounts given of the size of the two whales 

 which I have mentioned. Some writers give the length of the 

 sperm wliale at from 70 to 80 feet, and of the common whale at 

 from 80 to 100 feet. It is quite possible that such may have 

 been occasionally found, but they are to be viewed as exceptional, 

 for Capt. Scoresby, the very highest authority, and who had per- 

 son:illy engaged in the capture of 322 whales, says that not one 

 of them exceeded 60 feet. 



I may mention how apt people are to be deceived as to the 

 size of objects, and that no reliance can be placed on anything 

 but actual measurement. A gentleman of Quebec, noted for his 

 general intelligence and the interest he takes in all these subjects, 

 met me in the library of the Literary and Historical Societ}^, on 

 his return from Cacouna. He said: " So you have had a great 

 visitor at Quebec during my absence, but not so great as one that 

 visited the St. Lawrence nearly fifty years ago, and was captured 

 at Montreal. I have seen that the whale brought here last week 

 was onli/ 65 feet long ; I should say that the other was at least a 



