901 



CETACEA. 



CETACEA. 



There has been much discussion about the genera and species of 

 this family. We shall however follow the ' British Museum Catalogue," 

 adding the more common synonyms of the species. 



Catodon macrocephalus, Northern Sperm- Whale. This is the Physeter 

 macrocephalus of Linnteus ; the Sperm-Whale, the Spermaceti Whale, 

 the Blunt-Headed Cachalot of English writers. It is the Pliyseter 

 Trumpo of Bonnaterre; the Catodon Trumpo of Gerard ; the Physeter 

 gilbus of Schreber ; Cetus macrocephalus of Oken. 



The colour of this animal is black, becoming whitish below. 



The subjoined cut of the jaw is from F. Cuvier, who gives it from 

 the skeleton in the Paris Museum, and is confined to the lower 

 jaw only ; from which it may be inferred, that in the French specimen 

 there is no appearance of teeth in the upper jaw : in the lower there 

 are 27 on each side=54. 



Teeth of Cachalot. 



To render the following description more intelligible we prefix a 

 cut from Mr. Beale's work on the Sperm-Whale, which is by far the 

 most accurate published figure extant of the Spermaceti Whale. 



Spermaceti Whale (Catodon macrocephalut). 



1, Outline of the entire form ; 2, anterior aspect of the head ; a, nostril, or 

 spout-hole ; b, situation of the case ; r, the junk ; rf, bunch of the neck ; e, eye ; 

 /, fin ; ff, spiral strips or blanket pieces ; A, the hump ; i, the ridge ; it, the 

 small ; /, the tail or flukes. 



B, a harpoon. C, a lance. 



a, in flg. 2 : the lines forming the square are intended to represent the flat 

 anterior part of the head. 



The head presents a very thick blunt extremity, constituting about 

 a third of the whole length of the animal; at its junction with the 

 body is a large protuberance on the back called ' the bunch of the 

 neck.' Immediately behind this is the thickest part of the body, 

 which from thence gradually tapers off to the tail, but it does not 

 become much smaller for about another third of the whole length, 

 when ' the small ' or tail commences ; and at this point also, on the 

 back, is a large pyramidal prominence called ' the hump,' from which 

 a series of smaUei" processes run half way down the ' small ' or tail, 

 constituting what the whalers term the ' ridge.' The body then con- 

 tracts so much as to become finally not thicker than that of a man, 

 and terminates by expanding on the sides into the 'flukes' or tail, 

 forming a large triangular horizontal fin with a slight notch or 

 depression posteriorly between the flukes, which are about 6 or 8 

 feet in length, and from 12 to 14 feet in breadth in the largest males 

 or ' bulls.' The chest and belly are narrower than the broadest part 

 of the back, and taper off evenly towards the tail ; the depth of the 

 head and body is, in all parts except the tail, greater than the width. 

 The head, viewed in front, presents a broad somewhat flattened 

 surface, rounded and contracted above, considerably expanded on the 

 sides, and gradually contracted below, resembling in some degree the 

 cutwater of a ship. The slit of the single blowing-hole or nostril is 

 about 12 inches in length. In the right side of the nose is the ' case,' 

 a cavity for the purpose of secreting and containing an oily fluid, 

 which after death concretes into a granulated yellowish substance : 

 this is the Spermaceti. In the case of a large whale there is not un- 

 frequently a ton, or more than ten barrels of spermaceti. Beneath 

 the case and nostril is the elastic ' junk,' formed of dense cellular 

 tissue, strengthened by strong tendinous fibres, and infiltrated with 

 very fine sperm-oil and spermaceti. The mouth extends nearly the 

 whole length of the head. Both the jaws, especially the lower, arc 

 contracted in front to a very narrow point ; and when the mouth 

 is closed the lower jaw is received within a sort of cartilaginous lip, or 

 projection of the upper one : but principally in front ; for, farther back 

 at the sides, and towards the angle of the mouth, both jaws are 

 furnished with tolerably well-developed lips. The tongue is small 



and white. The throat is capacious enough to give passage to the 

 body of a man, presenting a strong contrast to the contracted gullet 

 of the Greenland Whale. Throughout, the mouth is lined with a 

 pearly white membrane. The eyes are small in proportion to the 

 size of the animal, and are furnished with eyelids, the lower of which 

 is most moveable. At a short distance behind the eyes are the 

 external openings of the ears, sufficiently large to admit a small quill. 

 Not far from the posterior angle of the mouth are the swimming- 

 paws or fins, which are not much used in progression, but probably 

 more as balances, and occasionally in supporting the young. 



Mr. Beale gives the following as the dimensions of a Sperm-Whale 

 of the largest size, or about 84 feet in length : Depth of head from 

 8 to 9 feet ; breadth from 5 to 6 feet ; depth of body seldom exceed- 

 ing 12 or 14 feet ; circumference seldom exceeding 36 feet ; swimming- 

 paws about 6 feet long and 3 feet broad. 



The skin is smooth, but occasionally in old whales wrinkled. The 

 general colour is very dark, deepest on the upper part of the head, 

 back, and flukes, in which situation it is sometimes black ; on the 

 sides it gradually assumes a lighter tint, and on the breast becomes 

 silvery-gray. In different individuals there is however every variety 

 of shade, and some are piebald. Old ' bulls ' have generally a portion 

 of gray on the nose, immediately above the fore-part of the upper jaw, 

 when they are said to be ' gray-headed.' The ' black skin ' in young 

 whales is about three-eighths of an inch thick ; in old ones it is 

 not more than one-eighth. Immediately beneath the black skin is 

 I the blubber or fat, termed the ' blanket,' of a light yellowish colour, 

 producing when melted the sperm-oil. 



The bulk of the head is, as we have seen, made up of a membranous 

 'case,' containing a thin oil of much less specific gravity than water ; 

 below which again is the 'junk,' which, although heavier than the 

 spermaceti, is still lighter than the element in which the whale 

 moves ; consequently, observes Mr. Beale, the head taken as a whole 

 is lighter specifically than any other part of the body, and will always 

 have a tendency to rise at least so far above the surface as to elevate 

 the nostril or blow-hole sufficiently for all purposes of respiration ; 

 and more than this, a very slight effort on the part of the whale 

 would only be necessary to raise the whole of the anterior flat surface 

 of the nose out of the water. At very regular intervals of time the 

 snout emerges, and from the extremity of the nose the spout is thrown 

 up, and at a distance appears thick, low, bushy, and white. It is 

 formed of the expired air forcibly ejected through the blow-hole, and 

 acquires its white colour from minute particles of water previously 

 lodged in the chink or fissure of the nostril, and also from the con- 

 densation of the aqueous vapour thrown off by the lungs. The 

 spout, says Mr. Beale in continuation, is projected at an angle of 

 136 degrees, in a slow and continuous manner for about three minutes, 

 and may be seen from the mast-head in favourable weather at the 

 distance of four or five miles. When the whale is alarmed, or ' gallied,' 

 the spout is thrown much higher with great rapidity, and differs much 

 from its usual appearance. Immediately after each spout the nose 

 sinks beneath the water, scarcely a second intervening for the act of 

 inspiration, which must consequently be performed very quickly, the 

 air rushing into the chest with astonishing velocity ; there is however 

 no sound caused by inspiration, and very little by expiration in this 

 species : in short, nothing of that loud noise called the ' drawback ' 

 in the Finback and other whales. Ten seconds is occupied by a large 

 bull sperm whale in making one inspiration and one expiration : 

 during six of these the nostril is beneath the water. At each breathing- 

 time the whale makes from 60 to 70 expirations, and remains there- 

 fore at the surface 10 or 11 minutes. When the breathing-time is 

 over, or, as the whalers term it, he has had his ' spoutings out,' the 

 head sinks slowly, the ' small,' or the part between the ' hump ' and 

 ' flukes,' appears above the water, curved, with the convexity upwards ; 

 the flukes are then lifted high into the air, and the animal having 

 assumed a straight position, descends perpendicularly to an unknown 

 depth. This last act is called ' peaking the flukes,' and those who are 

 on the look-out call loudly when they see it ' there goes flukes.' The 

 whale continues thus hidden beneath the surface for one hour and ten 

 minutes ; some will remain one hour and twenty minutes, and others 

 only for one hour ; but these, Mr. Beale says, are rare exceptions. A 

 seventh of the time of this whale is, Mr. Beale makes out, consumed 

 in respiration. 



Small fishes are occasionally swallowed in quantities by this whale, 

 and one haa been known to eject from its stomach a fish as large as 

 a moderate-sized salmon ; but the principal food of the Sperm-Whale 

 appears to consist of squids or cuttle-fishes. [SEPIAD^;.] 



This species is gregarious ; and the herds called ' schools ' are of 

 two kinds, one consisting of females, the other of young males not 

 fully grown. Mr. Beale has seen as many as 500 or 600 in one 

 ' school.' With each female ' school ' are from one to three large 

 ' bulls ' or ' school-masters,' as they are termed by the whalers. The 

 full-grown males almost always go alone in search of food : they are 

 when alone very incautious and easily killed. It is the smaller, or 

 ' forty-barrel bull,' aa he is called, that makes the most desperate resist- 

 ance. A large whale will yield 80 barrels of oil, and sometimes 100. 



Mr. Beale states that the female is smaller than the male, and that 

 she breeds at all seasons, producing generally only one at a time, but 

 sometimes two. Nothing certain appears to be known as to the 



