Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 185 



A description of the eyes and ears of the whales 

 should prove interesting in connection with what 

 has been written about the whale's powers of 

 communication. While the eye socket in the 

 skeleton of a whale might lead one to suppose 

 that the eye is of a size somewhat in proportion 

 to the bulk of the animal, this organ is in fact 

 small. Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, compares 

 the eyes of a full-grown sperm whale to those 

 of a colt. Moby Dick is a novel, but Melville's 

 descriptions of whales and whaling are accepted 

 at New Bedford. The eyes of all whales are 

 located far aft and well down near the angle 

 of the jaw. The whale, therefore, has an ex- 

 tremely limited field of vision. Melville says 

 that each eye covers no more than "some thirty 

 degrees of vision in advance of the straight side- 

 line of sight; and about thirty more behind it." 

 That the whale's eyes unite to portray a single 

 field of view upon the brain, as the eyes of a 

 man do, is of course impossible. It is reasonable 

 to suppose that the whale ordinarily sees and 

 comprehends two distinct fields of vision. When 

 he raises his head perpendicularly out of water 



