102 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
and the mackerel on their wandering path. Like the blubber- 
whale, the fin-back is black above, white below, but distinguishes 
itself by long and numerous blood-red streaks or furrows, run- 
ning under the lower jaw and breast as far as the middle of the 
belly. This is the species of whale which not unfrequently 
strands on our shores, for though an inhabitant of the Arctic 
seas, it wanders farther to the south than the Greenland whale. 
It is seldom harpooned, for the produce of oil is not equivalent 
to the expense, the risk, and the danger attending its capture. 
In the southern hemisphere, the Antarctic Smooth-backed 
Whale (B. antarctica), a species similar to the Greenland whale, 
though of less bulk, is the chief object of the fisherman’s pur- 
suit. It hangs much about the coasts in the temperate lati- 
tudes, and loves the neighbouring seas, where the discoloured 
waters afford the richest repasts, but is not known in the central 
parts of the Pacific. In the spring it resorts to the bays on the 
coasts of Chili, South Africa, the Brazils, Australia, New Zea- 
land, Van Diemen’s Land, &c. &c., where it is attacked either 
by stationary fishermen, or by whalers, who at that time leave 
the high seas, 
Farther towards the pole Hump-backs and Fin-backs abound ; 
but these are far from equalling the former in value. When 
Dumont d@’Urville, returning from his expedition to the south 
pole, told the whalers whom he found in the Bay of Talcahuano 
of the great number of cetaceans he had seen in the higher 
latitudes, their eyes glistened at the pleasing prospect ; but when 
he added that they were only hump-backs and fin-backs, they 
did not conceal their disappointment; for the hump-back is 
meagre, and not worth the boiling, and the fin-back dives with 
such rapidity, that he snaps the harpoon line, or drags the boat 
along with him into the water. 
The Sperm Whale, or Cachalot (Physeter macrocephalus), 
rivals the great smooth-backed whales both in its various utility 
to man and the colossal dimensions of its unwieldy body. The 
largest authentically recorded size of the uncouth animal is 
seventy-six feet by thirty-eight in girth; but whalers are well 
contented to consider fifty-five or sixty feet the average length 
of the largest examples they commonly obtain. The male, how- 
ever, alone attains these ample proportions; the adult female 
does not exceed thirty or at most thirty-five feet, so that there 
