﻿THE WHALE. 295 



The Whale. 



The whale belongs to that class o. animals denominated cetacea; 

 for, however strange it may appear to you, and however at variance 

 it may be with your general ideas of this monster, he is literally an 

 animal. While they inhabit the mighty deep, and in various other 

 ways resemble fish, yet they have warm blood, and breathe the air 

 like other animals. Like the seal, to which, as I have told you, 

 the whale bears a strong resemblance, they can remain a long time 

 under the water, sometimes even an hour, yet they must come to 

 the surface, or they would die, or more properly speaking be drowned. 

 Fish have cold blood and gills, and you cannot drown them. The 

 whale has no gills nor anything of a similar nature. 



Formerly, there was a great deal of exaggeration in regard to the 

 size of whales, some writers having declared that they frequently 

 exceeded two hundred feet in length. Now the Greenland, or right 

 whale, as it is sometimes called, and of which our knowledge is 

 more extended than of any other, very rarely or never exceeds 

 seventy-five feet in length, while the common or usual size for a 

 full-grown whale is from fifty to sixty feet. Scoresby, an eminent 

 navigator, was personally concerned in the capture of three hun- 



