186 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



Bold guessers allow the young twenty or twenty -five 

 years to grow, and it is supposed whales live to a great age. 

 In the old whale the teeth are blunt. In old bulls the teeth 

 are sometimes worn down almost even with the jaw. Now 

 consider that these teeth (especially those of the cow, which 

 is not supposed to fight) have only to encounter the soft 

 substance of the squid, and conceive the age necessary to 

 wear down this hard ivory. Let us consider the signs en- 

 graved on the surface. When we regard the position of 

 the eye of the sperm- whale, and its comparatively limited 

 range of vision, and that the creature is without a hand to 

 grasp and convey its food to an extremely narrow mouth, 

 and then consider^ the activity of the fishes by which the 

 whale is surrounded, we might naturally conclude that it 

 could enjoy but a precarious existence at best. As we are 

 led to inquire into the special provision made for the suste- 

 nance of an animal so huge, and yet so helpless, we are struck 

 at once with the simplicity of one of the means by which it 

 is enabled to entrap its prey. It is known that the squids 

 or sepia, about which our readers have heard so many yarns 

 already, are attracted by, and attach themselves to, a white 

 or shining object. Fishermen take advantage of this by 

 lowering hooked tin or other lures to attract and capture 

 them. The jaw of the sperm-whale, the inner side of the 

 mouth, and the tongue are of a silvery whiteness, and, some 

 observers assert, are provided with a luminous or phospho- 

 rescent quality which is irresistible to the sepia, in the gloom 

 of its home, the dark color of the whale's body being invisi- 

 ble in the deep water. Doubtless the smaller sepia such as 

 we find abundantly in the stomach of the black-fish, are thus 

 taken by the sperm-whale. 



The great size of the deep-sea squid is within the whale's 

 means of attack, and furnishes a rich feast. Remains of 

 sharks and other large fishes are also disgorged by the 



