92 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



The habits and living of the sperm whale 

 are quite as different from those of the right as 

 is its structure. Its head is enormously large 

 and unshapely, and furnished with an immense 

 under jaw, that is armed with two rows of mam- 

 moth teeth, forty-eight and fifty-four in number. 

 It seizes its prey with these teeth, having no 

 whalebone seive or strainer, like what has been 

 already described in the right whale, and it is 

 supported principally by the squid, otherwise 

 called cuttle-fish, or Sepia Octopus, of which 

 one sperm whale that we captured disgorged 

 pieces, or congeries of pieces, almost as long as 

 the whale boat, before going into its flurry. 



From what I have observed myself and have 

 been told by others, it appears that when this 

 whale is inclined to feed, he goes to a certain 

 depth below the surface, and there remains in 

 an oblique position, as quiet as possible, open- 

 ing his vast elongated mouth until the lower 

 jaw hangs down perpendicularly, or at right 

 angles with the body. The roof of his mouth, 

 the tongue, and especially the teeth, being of a 

 glistening white colour, must of course present 



