THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. * 175 



CHAPTER XV. 



Enormous Supply of Blood in the Whale. Sir John Hunter's Views. 

 Whales' Spouts. The Life. Spouting thick Blood, dies of Suffocation. 

 Flurry. Fin out. Telegraphing. The "Glip," or Wake. "Lob- 

 tailing." "Breaching" and "Sounding." Turning Flukes. Regular- 

 ity in the Spouting, Time of Blowing, Submergence, and Speed of 

 Whales discussed. Description of Spout. Errors of Naturalists on the 

 Spout. Skin of Whale. Flesh and Blood. Their Young. Period of 

 Gestation. Whale's Office in the Millennium. Age of Whales measured 

 by the Teeth. Sand-marks on the Teeth as affecting Question of Food. 

 Settling of Whales. Size of Whales and their Proportions. My Views 

 indorsed by old Whalemen. Jumper, and Captain Scott, R.N. Captain 

 Basil, Hall's return from Dinner ashore, and what he saw. Power of 

 Whales to remain under Water at Will, and Captain West's Opinion. 

 Opinions of Captains Gardener, Covill, and West. No Blood in the 

 Whale's immense Case and Junk. Queries suggested thereby on Cir- 

 culation and Animal Heat. Offices of the Oil glanced at. Cold Cur- 

 rents of the Pacific. Sperm-whales frequent these. What Ledyard 

 Brown did. 



THE enormous quantity of blood which flows from a 

 wounded and dying whale is a constant subject of obser- 

 vation and remark. That the whales possess a quantity of 

 blood proportionately greater than that of land animals is 

 quite certain. The disposition and use of such a great store 

 was first explained by the learned Sir John Hunter some- 

 what as follows : To enable the whale to descend to great 

 depths, and to remain under water for long periods, it be- 

 comes necessary that it should have a supply of arterialized 

 blood to maintain the circulation. To this end, in all the 

 family there exists a reservoir, composed of congeries of 

 great arteries, which become charged with arterialized blood 

 during the time of breathing on the surface; and it is sup- 



