104 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
concealed by them. True and serviceable teeth are situated only 
in the lower jaw, and are received into corresponding sockets 
in the upper jaw. In aged males they are of great solidity and 
size, attaining a weight of from two to four pounds each; their 
entire structure is ivory. This powerful armament shows us at 
once that the food of the cachalot must be very different from 
that of the whalebone cetaceans; it generally consists of cuttle- 
Cuttle-fish (Sepia). 
fish, many kinds of which are ejected from its stomach when it 
is attacked by the boats, as well as after death. Owing to the 
great projection of the snout beyond the lower jaw, it may be 
requisite for this whale to turn on its side or back to seize its 
more bulky prey; a supposition strengthened by the fact that, 
when the animal attacks a boat with its mouth, it invariably 
assumes a reversed posture, carrying the lower jaw abeve the 
object it is attempting to bite. As long as it continues on the 
surface of the sea, the cachalot casts from its nostril a constant 
succession of spouts, at intervals of ten or fifteen seconds. As 
in all whales, the jets are not, as frequently imagined, water- 
columns, but a thick white mist ejected by one continual effort 
to the height of six or eight feet, and rushing forth with a sound 
resembling a moderate surf upon a smooth beach. The peculiar 
fat or sperm which renders the cachalot so valuable, is chiefly 
situated in the head. Junk is the name given by the fishermen 
to a solid mass of soft, yellow, and oily fat, weighing between 
two and three tons, based on the upper jaw, and forming the 
front and lower part of the snout; while the cavity called case 
is situated beneath and to the right of the spouting canal, and 
corresponds to nearly the entire length of that tube. It is 
filled with a very delicate web of cellular tissue, containing in 
