28 



WHALE. 



makes a convulsive effort to escape. Then is the 

 moment of danger ; and both boat and men are ex- 

 posed to destruction from the violent blows of its 

 ponderous tail. The animal immediately sinks un- 

 der water: after this it usually pursues its course 

 directly downwards towards the bottom of the sea. 

 The utmost care and attention are requisite, on the 

 part of every person in the boat, while the lines are 

 i mining out ; fatal consequences having been ><>mr- 

 1 lines produced by the most trifling neglect. When 

 (lie line happens to run foul, and cannot be cleared 

 on the instant, it sometimes draws the boat under 

 water. The average stay under water of a woundi-d 

 vhale, which steadily descends after being struck, 

 is about thirty minutes. The greater the velocity, 

 the more considerable the distance to which it 

 descends, and the longer the time it remains under 

 water, so much greater in proportion is its exhaus- 

 tion and the facility of accomplishing its capture. 

 "iVlit'iiever it re-appears, the assisting boats make 

 ior the place with their utmost speed; and, as they 

 i each it, each harpooner plunges his harpoon into 

 its back, to the number of three, four, or more, ac- 

 lording to the size of the whale and the nature of 

 the situation. Most frequently, however, the 

 whale descends, for a few minutes, after receiving 

 the second harpoon, and obliges the other boats to 

 await its return to the surface, before any further 

 attack can be made. It is afterwards actively plied 

 with lances, which are thrust into its body, aiming 

 at the vitals. At length, exhausted by numerous 

 wounds and the loss of blood, the huge animal in- 

 dicates the approach of death by discharging from 

 the blow-holes a mixture of blood along with the 

 air and mucus which it usually expires, and, finally, 

 jets of blood alone. The sea, to a great extent 

 round, is dyed with its blood ; and the ice, boats 

 and men are sometimes drenched with it. Its final 

 capture is sometimes preceded by a convulsive 

 struggle, in which the tail, reared, whirled, and 

 violently jerked in the air, resounds to the distance 

 of miles. In dying, it turns upon its back or its 

 side. Thus ends this remarkable contest between 

 human ingenuity and brute force, in which man 

 seems to be chiefly indebted for success to bis own 

 apparent insignificance, to the animal exhausting 

 itself by its own efforts, and to the necessity it is 

 under of coming to the surface to breathe. The 

 remarkable exhaustion observed in a wounded 

 whale, on its reappearance at the surface, is the 

 effect ot the almost incredible pressure to which 

 the animal must have been exposed at the depth of 

 seven or eight hundred fathoms a pressure on the 

 surface of its body exceeding 200,000 tons, and 

 which is sufficient to force the water through the 

 pores of the hardest wood. 



For a full account of the whale, as well as of the 

 various modes of fishing in pack, field, or bay ice, 

 &c., and of the subsequent operations upon the 

 dead body, we must refer to the work of Scoresby, 

 where the reader will find the most certain infor- 

 mation on tliis subject, so far, at least, as the busi- 

 ness is carried on in the Polar seas. 



The various uses to which the different, parts of 

 the whale are applied, are too numerous for inser- 

 tion here : suffice it to say, the whale fishery forms 

 an important branch of commerce, and, indeed, 

 seems almost indispensable to the existence of some 

 northern tribes. 



The razor-back (B. physalus) is probably the 

 irost poWerful and bulky of its tribe, and conse- 

 quently of the whole animal creation. It is readily 



distinguished from the preceding by the presence 

 of a dorsal fin ; its form is less cylindrical, the 

 body proportionally longer, the whalebone shorter, 

 its breathing or blowing more violent, and its speed 

 greater. The length is about one hundred feet, 

 and its greatest circumference thirty or thirty-five. 

 Its blowing in calm weather may be beard at the 

 distance of a mile. Its greatest speed is about 

 twelve miles an hour. It is by no means a timid 

 animal ; and when closely pursued does not attempt 

 to outstrip the boat, but merely endeavours to avoid 

 it by diving or changing its direction. If harpooned 

 or otherways wounded, it then exerts all its ener- 

 gies, and escapes with its utmost velocity, but 

 shows little disposition to retaliate on its enemies. 

 It seldom lies quietly on the surface of the water 

 while blowing, but usually has a velocity of four or 

 five miles an hour, and, when it descends, very 

 rarely throws its tail into the air, which is a very 

 general practice with the common whale. Its great 

 speed and activity render it a difficult and danger- 

 ous object of attack, while the small quantity of 

 inferior oil it affords makes it unworthy the general 

 attention of the fishers. When struck it frequently 

 drags the fast-boat with such speed through the wa- 

 ter, that it is liable to be carried immediately be- 

 yond the reach of assistance, and soon out of sight 

 of both boats and ship. It has been known to dive 

 obliquely with such velocity that 480 fathoms, or 

 more than half a mile, of line were withdrawn from 

 the boat in about a minute of time. The head is 

 small, compared with that of the common whale ; 

 the fins long and narrow ; the tail about twelve feet 

 broad ; the whalebone about four feet in length, 

 thick, bristly, and narrow; the blubber six or eight 

 inches thick, of indifferent quality ; the colour 

 bluish-black on the back, and bluish-gray on the 

 belly ; the skin smooth, excepting on the sides of 

 the thorax, where are some remarkable longitudi- 

 nal folds. The physalus occurs, in great numbers 

 in the Arctic seas, especially along the edge of the 

 ice between Cherie island and Nova Zembla, and 

 also near Jan Mayen. It is seldom seen among 

 much ice, and seems to be avoided by the common 

 whale ; and, consequently, the whale fishers view 

 its appearance with concern. 



The cachalot or spermaceti whale (pJiyseter ma- 

 crocephalus) differs from the above-mentioned ani- 

 mals in many important particulars. The mouth is 

 entirely destitute of whalebone, and the lower jaw 

 is armed, on each side, with a row of about twenty 

 thick, conical teeth, which fit into corresponding 

 depressions in the upper jaw. The blow-hole is 

 single, not symmetrical, but directed towards the 

 left side, and placed at the extremity of the upper 

 part of the snout. The left eye is also smaller than 

 the other. The head is of enormous size, termin- 

 ated abruptly in front ; but the lower jaw is very 

 long and narrow. The upper part of the head is 

 composed of large cavities, separated by cartilagin- 

 ous partitions, rilled with an oil which condenses 

 and crystallizes on cooling, forming the well-known 

 substance called spermaceti. This is the principal 

 object of the fishery ; for their body does not yield 

 a great proportion of blubber. The spermaceti 

 whale is found in all seas, but most abundantly in 

 the Pacific. It is gregarious ; and herds are fre- 

 quently seen containing two hundred or more indi- 

 viduals. Such herds, with the exception of two or 

 three old males, are composed of females, who ap- 

 pear to be under the direction of the males, The 

 males are distinguished by the whalers, as " bulls." 



