72 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



the distance of one or two miles on a clear day, because of 

 the condensation of the vapour which takes place the 

 moment it escapes from the nostril, and its consequent 

 opacity, which makes it appear of a white colour, and 

 which is not observed when the whale is close to the spec- 

 tator. It then appears only like a jet of white steam. 

 The only water in addition is the small quantity that may 

 be lodged in the external fissure of the spout hole, when 

 the animal raises it above the surface to breathe, and which 

 is blown up into the air with the ' spout,' and may pro- 

 bably assist in condensing the vapour of which it is 

 formed. ... I have been also very close to the Balcsjia 

 mysticetus (the Greenland, or Right whale) when it has been 

 feeding and breathing, and yet I never saw even that 

 animal differ in the latter respect from the sperm whale in 

 the nature of the spout. ... If the weather is fine and 

 clear, and there is a gentle breeze at the time, the spout 

 may be seen from the masthead of a moderate-sized vessel 

 at the distance of four or five miles." 



Captain Scoresby, who was a veteran and successful 

 whaler, a good zoologist, and a highly intelligent observer, 

 says : — " A moist vapour mixed with mucus is discharged 

 from the nostrils when the animal breathes ; but no water 

 accompanies it unless an expiration of the breath be made 

 under the surface." 



Dr. Robert Brown, who communicated to the Zoological 

 Society, in May, 1868, a valuable series of observations on 

 the mammals of Greenland, made during his voyages to the 

 Spitzbergen, Iceland, and Jan Mayen Seas, and along the 

 eastern and western shores of Davis's Strait and Baffin's 

 Bay to near the mouth of Smith's Sound, remarks, in a 

 chapter on the Right whale {Balcena mysticetus) : — " The 

 * blowing,' so familiar a feature of the Cetacea, but especi- 



