46 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



forth its young alive, generally one at a time, 

 and giving them suck. It is not, therefore, a 

 fish, is without scales, breathes the air through 

 enormous lungs, not gills, and respires by what 

 is called its spout or blow-holes, a kind of 

 nostrils, or, in other words, two apertures situ- 

 ated on the upper part of its head, through 

 which is forcibly expelled all the warm air and 

 vapour of the lungs. 



The character of the spout serves to distin- 

 guish at a distance the kind of whale, whether 

 "right whale" (Balaena mysticetus), or " sperm" 

 (makrocephalus). The "right whale," having 

 two large orifices on the top of the back part of 

 its head as it lies along in the water, the dense 

 vapour ejected is forced up perpendicularly till 

 dissipated in the air, or carried off by the wind. 

 The "sperm whale," on the other hand, has but 

 one external blowhole, and that a little on one 

 side or corner of its head, from which the 

 ejected stream of breath issues a little obliquely, 

 and not straight up, as in the " right whale." 

 Being only the confined air of the lungs, and con- 

 densed into a white mist, it vanishes instantly. 



