HISTORY AND DETAILS OF WHALING. 255 



or head, as the sperm whale does ; but his means of attack 

 and defence are chiefly in his enormous flukes. He will, how- 

 ever, when struck, "root around," as whalemen say, and not 

 unfrequently in this manner upset a boat. 



This kind of whale, and other varieties, distinguished by the 

 baleen or bone, have no regular time for remaining on the sur- 

 face of the water after they " breach," nor in remaining under 

 water after they " turn flukes." 



The length of a large right whale is about eighty feet, and 

 some have yielded their captors two hundred and fifty to three 

 hundred barrels of oil. 



Such a whale would perhaps weigh not far from eighty tons. 

 Allowing one ox to weigh twenty-five hundred or three thou- 

 sand pounds, he would weigh down more than fifty of such 

 animals. 



And what a sublime sight it must be — and whalemen have 

 often observed it — to see such a prodigious living mass leap- 

 ing right into the air, clear, altogether out of the water, so that 

 the horizon can be seen between the fish and the ocean ! These 

 stupendous exercises and gambols of such huge creatures are 

 termed "breaching." 



Sometimes a whale will turn its head downwards, and, mov- 

 ing its tremendous tail high in the air, will lash the water with 

 violence, raising a cloud of vapor, and sending a loud report 

 to the distance of two or three miles. This is called "lobtail- 

 ing " by whalemen. 



The oil of this species of whale is less valuable than the 

 sperm. The "whalebone," which now has an advanced price 

 in the market far beyond any previous value attached to it, is 

 obtained from the mouth of the whale about in proportion of 

 a thousand pounds to a hundred barrels of oil. 



3. The Finback "Whale. This is a smooth, slim fish — 

 smaller usually than a right whale. He is found in nearly all 

 latitudes. His head and mouth are of the same construction 

 with those of the right whale. This whale is known by whale- 



