CETACEA. 249 
in the sub-tropical oceans. I have occasionally seen them in the 
South Atlantic, though they are said to have diminished there of late 
years. It is a wonder that the species does not get scarce in many 
localities, so great is the chase after them. During the last forty years 
the Americans alone have taken at the rate of 10,000 barrels of sperm 
oil per annum, or upwards of four million barrels since 1835. The 
sperm whale, though of such enormous bulk and courage, yet has 
enemies besides man. ‘The thrasher and the killer whale both attack 
it, and sailors assert that the sword-fish and thrasher combine against 
it, the latter stabbing from below, whilst the former leaps on it with 
stunning blows. I think by sword-fish (X7f/zas), which is also a large 
but not so very sanguinary a fish, they mean the saw-fish (Pris¢is), which 
is allied to the sharks, and which attacks the largest whales. The sword- 
fish has however the character of being pugnacious. The old sperms, 
especially males, will show fight at times, but the younger ones are 
easily alarmed, and on being molested rush off in various directions, 
each looking out for himself. The sperm whale is known from the 
others by the way in which it spouts, the jet being thrown up obliquely 
forwards, and it blows at regular intervals. Although the old “ bulls” 
show a certain amount of ferocity at times, their savageness is con- 
siderably exaggerated by the whalers, who love to spin yarns about them. 
Having watched the habits of these and the baleen whales with 
curiosity, I tried to get as much information about them as I could, 
from the whalers, but, with the exception of the officers of whaling ships, 
there was much that was unreliable in Jack’s notions about the sperm. 
On one occasion I was just too late to see one killed. The boats, under 
full sail, were towing the carcase towards the ship. I would have given 
a good deal to have seen the encounter. The food of the sperm 
consists greatly of the huge rock squid or cuttle-fish, which they swallow 
in large lumps. I have heard whalers assert that a wounded sperm in 
the death agony will vomit immense pieces of squid. In this respect 
it differs much from the baleen whales, which have a narrow gullet. 
According to Professor Flower there is no sufficient evidence of the 
existence of more than one species of sperm whales, but an allied 
species, Physeter (Euphysetes) simus, is found on the Madras coast, and 
to this I will allude further on. 
