FLESH-EATING MAMMALS OF THE SEA 73 



but consider for a moment the lesser shrew, which 

 measures 3^ in., and the blue whale {Balsenoptera 

 sihhaldi), which reaches a length of 80-85 ft. and 

 weighs from 220,000 to 330,000 lb.— that is, as much 

 as a whole herd of 150 oxeji. The blue whale is not 

 only the giant among whales, but is the largest 

 animal that exists, or ever did exist, as far aS we 

 know. Animals of such gigantic pi-oportions could 

 only live in the sea. The earth could not feed 

 them. The sea alone has food enough. As Spenser 

 so truly says in the ^Faerie Queene,^ Bk. iv, Canto xii : 



' Oh what an endless task have I in hand 

 To count the sea's abundant progeny. 

 Whose fruitful seed far passeth those on land 

 And also those which wonne in the azure sky ! 

 For much more eath to tell the stars on high, 

 Albe they endless seem in estimation. 

 Than to recount the sea's posterity — 

 So fertile be the floods in generation. 

 So huge their numbers, and so numberless their nation." 



In the sea only could bodies of such vast size and 

 weight move about. And here the whale is as quick 

 and agile as the proverbial fairy. Nevertheless, let 

 us remember that whales are not fishes, but warm- 

 blooded mammals, suckling their young and breathing 

 air, and at the same time the most admirably adapted 

 of all mammals to an aquatic life. On land they 

 are powerless. The fore limbs are merely paddles, 

 and no hind limbs are visible on the exterior. 

 Small bones imbedded in the flesh, in the region of 

 the loins, are the only remaining traces of these lost 

 limbs. A stranded whale is unable to breathe, 

 because its own ponderous weight crushes its chest. 



