THE SPERM WHALE 1201 



which they expressed in curses deep and loud. These taunts maddened the Maori, 

 and no sooner was the boat again pulled up to the whale than he bounded on the 

 animal's back, and for one dizzy second was seen there. The next, all was foam 

 and fury, and both w r ere out of sight. The men in the boat shoved off, flung over 

 a line as fast as they could, while ahead nothing was seen but a red whirlpool of 

 blood and brine. Presently a dark object swam out, the line began to straighten, 

 then smoke round the loggerhead, and the boat sped like an arrow through the 

 water. They were fast, and the whale was running. But where was the New 

 Zealander ? His brown head was on the boat's gunwale and he was hauled aboard 

 in the very midst of the mad bubbles that burst under the bows." 



When harpooned or lanced, females and young males generally make the most 

 frantic efforts to escape; and being very active in their motions, give the most 

 trouble to dispatch. The larger whales, yielding eighty or more barrels of oil, 

 being less active animals, are in most cases killed more easily. This is, however, 

 by no means always so, and there are many instances on record where large sperm 

 whales have turned with the utmost fury upon their pursuers, and destroyed every 

 object that came in their way, either by blows from the enormous flukes, or by 

 attacking with the head and lower jaw. There are, moreover, well-authenticated 

 instances, not only of sperm whales demolishing the boats of a whaling-ship, but 

 actually attacking and sinking the vessel itself; and Captain Scammon thinks it 

 probable that many ships which have perished without leaving any clue as to their 

 fate, have been wrecked by these whales. In 1820 the Essex was destroyed in the 

 South Pacific by an infuriated cachalot, which made two deliberate charges at the 

 vessel, the first of which produced a considerable leak, while the second stove in 

 the bows. Again, in 1851, the Ann Alexander was sunk in a similar manner off 

 the Peruvian coast. Whether the ship Union, which was wrecked in 1807 by strik- 

 ing a sperm whale in the night, was actually attacked by the animal, or whether 

 this was a case of accidental collision, can never be ascertained. As an instance of 

 the ferocity of these whales, it may be mentioned that in 1851, when the ship Citi- 

 zen was whaling in the Atlantic, a wounded cachalot, after attacking and demolish- 

 ing one boat, made for a second, from which it was only diverted by its attention 

 being transferred to a third. This third boat only escaped with difficulty, and the 

 whale thereupon headed straight for the vessel itself, which was then approaching 

 under full sail. By putting the head before the wind, the rush of the whale was, 

 how r ever, avoided; and before the animal could gather itself for a second charge, it 

 was seized with its death throes and expired. In another case a sperm whale, not 

 content with having smashed a whaleboat, actually seized the timbers in its jaws 

 and chewed them into match wood. 



Sperm whales, belonging mostly to extinct genera, were abundant 



Extinct Sperm . - _,,. . , ^ . . , ., - 



Whale ln Pliocene period, their remains occurring in the crag deposits of 



England and Belgium, and likewise in Australia. Some of these forms 

 (Eucctus~) were of large size, and appear to have been allied to the living species; 

 but others (Scaldicetus'} were distinguished by having the summits of the teeth sur- 

 mounted with a cap of grooved enamel. A third type is considered to be closely 

 allied to the whale described below. 

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