THE WHALE TRIBE. 



Ill 



Fig. 93 The Sperm Whale. 



teeth. In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford there is an 

 uncler-jaw-bone of this whale, sixteen and a half feet in 

 length, containing forty-eight huge teeth. It can knock 

 a boat in pieces with its tail, or bite it in two with its 

 jaws. In its immense head there is a very small brain, 

 but there is a large reservoir of mingled spermaceti and 

 oil in nearly a liquid state. A hole is cut in its head by 

 its captors, and this mixture is baled out with buc'kets. 

 By draining and boiling, the spp.rflia.f*fiti is obtained from 

 this separate from the oil. The blubber of this whale 

 is thin, but yields a fine and valuable oil. The sperma- 

 ceti obtained from a Sperm Whale of ordinary size 

 amounts to about ten or twelve barrels. 



190. The perfume called Ambergris is found in the in- 

 testines of the Sperm Whale. It is of the consistence 

 of wax, is inflammable, and has a musky odor. 



191. The Sperm Whales are gregarious, forming com- 

 panies of some hundreds, with two of the largest as 

 guards and leaders. Their food is fish, which they can 



swallow of a large size, for their throats are capacious 



8 



