CHAP TERK 2b Vil 
WHALES. 
WHALES are the largest of all the inhabitants of the sea, and 
the greatest of all known animals. The Greenland whale 
(Balena mysticetus) in very early times attracted the attention 
of mariners and naturalists. It has been observed that this gigantic 
beast must necessarily have been aquatic. If it had been a terres- 
trial animal, what legs could have supported y? If it had been 
aerial, what wings could have borne its weight? Providence there- 
fore placed the whale in the water, and gave it the form of a 
fish, to enable it to move with ease and celerity. The dimensions 
of the whale are such, that we may compute them by the greatest 
terrestrial measurements. Authors declare that specimens have 
existed whose length equalled the hundred thousandth part of an 
arc of the meridian! Lacépede affirms that a whale placed 
upright against Notre Dame would be one-third higher than the 
tower. Making allowance for the exaggerations of sailors and 
naturalists, we may consider that the largest whales are from 
80 to 100 feet, and even sometimes 130 feet long. Quite recently 
—April, 1863—on the coast of Dunkirk was found an enormous 
whale, cast on shore by a violent gale from the south-east. This 
leviathan of the deep was ninety-seven feet long, and sixty-five feet 
in circumference. The agony of the poor animal lasted nearly 
two hours after he was thrown on the land. In his last struggles 
he made the sand fly 300 feet from the shore, and a frightful 
hissing announced that nature had at length succumbed. It has 
been asserted that the weight of this prodigious creature reaches 
even 250 tons. A whale which was found by Scoresby to be 
more than sixty feet long, weighed seventy tons. 
The body of the whale is a colossal and irregular cylinder, the 
diameter of the smallest part being about one-third that of the 
