CETACEANS. 155 



regarded as the minimum dimensions of the breathing 

 whale. 



It is the male animal only which attains to the full 

 magnitude of his species: the adult female does not 

 exceed the length of thirty, or at most thirty-five feet 

 a greater disproportion existing between the sexes in 

 this, than in any other known species of cetacean.* 



Whalers technically express the size of a Cachalot by 

 the number of barrels of oil it is calculated to produce. 

 A large male has occasionally produced one hundred 

 barrels of oil, and a female fifty ; but both these quan- 

 tities are deemed extraordinary ; and from seventy to 

 ninety barrels from the adult male, and twenty to thirty 

 from the female, is the usual average. 



The form of this whale is colossal, without symmetry, 

 and, from the general absence of other prominent organs 

 than the tail and pectoral fins, can be compared to little 

 else than a dark rock, or the bole of some giant tree. 



The prevailing colour of the skin is a dull-black. In 

 some parts, and especially on the abdomen and tail, it 

 is occasionally marked with white; and this as fre- 

 quently obtains in the youngest as in the most aged 

 examples. Some individuals have their sides covered 

 with short and rounded elevations, or ridges, chiefly 

 arranged longitudinally, and passing into each other 

 like the convolutions on the surface of a brain an 

 appearance which is not retained in the integuments 

 when they are removed from the carcase. 



The enormous head, which has obtained for this 

 whale its specific name, constitutes full one-third of the 

 entire animal, in magnitude, and much exceeds that 

 proportion in weight. It approaches to a square form ; 



* If any disparity in size exists between the sexes of the Greenland 

 Whale, it is found to be rather in favour of the female. 



