1?8 ZOOLOGY. 



rapid retreat, without any concern for the fate of their 

 comrades. 



It is a confirmed fact, and one often noticed with 

 surprise by southern whalers, that upon a Cachalot 

 being struck from a boat, others, many miles distant 

 from the spot, will almost instantaneously express by 

 their actions, an apparent consciousness of what has 

 occurred, or at least of some untoward event, and 

 either make off in alarm, or come down to the assistance 

 of their injured companion. But, without attributing 

 to the Cachalot an extraordinary acuteness of sight or 

 hearing, or any more mysterious sensibility, we may 

 perhaps find, that the violent agitation of the sea, pro- 

 duced by the plunges of the harpooned whale, and the 

 more rapid and distinct conveyance of sound in water 

 than in air, * are sufficient to account for the above 

 phenomenon. 



From the abundance of calves, accompanying the 

 schools, and the great number of Sperm Whales yet 

 visible, notwithstanding the incessant slaughter to 

 which they have been exposed for nearly a century and 

 a half, we are justified in believing that this species is 

 peculiarly prolific. Like other cetaceans, they couple 

 more hominum : in one instance, which came under my 

 notice, the position of the parties was vertical; their 

 heads being raised above the surface of the sea. 



Nothing satisfactory is known about the duration of 

 pregnancy in this whale. We observed them copula- 

 ting in August, but it is probable that no particular 



* Chladni estimates the velocity of sound in water to be four or five 

 times greater than in air. The experiments of Dr. Franklin tend to 

 prove, that sound, after travelling above a mile through water, loses but 

 little of its intensity. 



