62 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



THE "SPOUTING" OF WHALES. 



One of the sea-fallacies still generally believed, and accepted 

 as true, is that whales take in water by the mouth, and 

 eject it from the spiracle, or blow-hole. 



The popular ideas on this subject are still those which 

 existed hundreds of years ago, and which are expressed by 

 Oppian in two passages in his ' Halieutics ' : 



and 



" Uncouth the sight when they in dreadful play- 

 Discharge their nostrils and refund a sea," 



" While noisy fin-fish let their fountains fly 

 And spout the curling torrent to the sky." 



Eminent zoologists and intelligent observers, who have 

 had full opportunities of obtaining practical knowledge of 

 the habits of these great marine mammals, have forcibly 

 combated and repeatedly contradicted this erroneous idea ; 

 but their sensible remarks have been read by few, in com- 

 parison with the numbers of those to whom a wrong im- 

 pression has been conveyed by sensational pictures in which 

 whales are represented zvith their heads above the surface, 

 and throwing up from their nostrils columns of water, like 

 the fountains in Trafalgar Square. One can hardly be 

 surprised that the old writers on Natural History were un- 

 acquainted with the real composition of the whale's " spout." 

 Those of them who sought for any original information on 

 marine zoology, obtained it chiefly from uninstructed and 

 superstitious fishermen ; but they generally contented 



