THE SPERM-WHALE. 105 
Jarge cells a limpid and oily fluid, which is liberated by the 
slightest force. The quantity, chiefly spermaceti, contained in 
this singular receptacle, is often very considerable, nearly 500 
gallons having been obtained from the case of one whale. So 
vast an accumulation of fat has obviously been intended to 
insure a correct position in swimming, to facilitate the elevation 
of the spiracle above the surface of the sea, and to counteract 
the weight of the bony and other ponderous textures of the 
head; objects which in the Greenland whale are sufficiently 
attained by a similar accumulation of fat in the lips and tongue, 
and by the more elevated situation of the spout-hole. 
While the large whalebone whales generally roam about in 
solitary couples, the cachalot forms large societies. Schools, 
consisting of from twenty to fifty individuals, are composed of 
females attended by their young, and associated with at least one 
adult male of the largest size, who generally takes a defensive 
position in the rear when the school is flying from danger. 
Pods are smaller congregations of young or half-grown males, 
which have been driven from the maternal schools. Two or 
more schools occasionally coalesce to a “body of whales,” so 
that Bennett * sometimes saw the ocean for several miles around 
the ship swarming with sperm leviathans, and strewn with a 
constant succession of spouts. These large assemblies some- 
times proceed at a rapid pace in one determinate direction, and 
are then soon lost sight of; at other times they bask and sleep 
upon the surface, spouting leisurely, and exhibiting every indi- 
cation of being at home, or on their feeding ground. Like 
most gregarious animals, the cachalots are naturally timid. A 
shoal of dolphins leaping-in their vicinity is sufficient to put a 
whole school to flight: yet occasionally fighting individuals are 
met with; particularly among those morose solitary animals, 
that most likely from their intolerable character have been 
turned out of the society of their kind. The central deserts of 
ocean, or the neighbourhood of the steepest coasts, are the chief 
resort of the cachalot; and so great is the difference of his 
habitat from that of the smooth-backed whales, that during the 
whole time Bennett was cruising in quest of cachalots, he in no 
single instance saw an example of the true whale. The cachalot 
* Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe. 
