28 i 



B A L M N A. 



and as a return by the same way that it arrives would 

 be inconvenient, it is received into cavities in the 

 head ; and, from time to time, discharged by the 

 operation of blowing. 



The feeding apparatus and the whole operation of 

 feeding are thus, in the baleen, or whalebone whales, 

 very peculiar, and quite different from those of any 

 other species of animal. Feeding, in them, can be 

 attended with no more fatigue than what results from 

 their progressive motion through the water, and the 

 occasional blowing of the water from the cavities in 

 the head. There is no motion of the jaws, or of the 

 baleen, and it docs not appear that there is much of 

 the tongue. The food receives no kind of prepara- 

 tion in the mouth, but goes to the gullet in precisely 

 the-same state in which it is separated from the water 

 by the filtering action of the baleen. Though inter- 

 rupted in all parts of its progress by the plates, the 

 current of water toward the gullet may be compared 

 to a wedge, which gets smaller as it proceeds, in con- 

 sequence of the quantity which escapes laterally. 

 Toward the top of this wedge, the food is collected, 

 and by that it is carried onward to its destination, the 

 small quantity of water which carries it there being 

 disposed of in the manner above stated. If the pro- 

 ductiveness of the water be considered as uniform, 

 the rate at which the whale feeds will thus be pro- 

 portionate to that at which it moves through the water ; 

 and rapid motion along a bare pasture will have the 

 same effect as slow motion over a rich one. The 

 only efficient organ of motion in whales is the tail ; 

 and therefore, strange as it sounds in words, the tail 

 of the whale is the active instrument in the procuring 

 of its food. Its usual mode of feeding is near the 

 surface, so that a considerable portion of the body is 

 above water. That portion is wholly black in colour, 

 and not very handsome in shape ; and as there is no 

 fin on the back, and the eyes, though well formed 

 and even expressive,, are very small for the size of 

 the animal (about equal to those of an ox,) there is 

 nothing animated in the appearance of the floating 

 whale when seen from a distance. It looks like a 

 floating log, or the top of a small dark islet ; and 

 when the jots of water and steam are thrown up in 

 the operation of blowing, it does not require much 

 stretch of imagination to consider the islet an infant 

 volcano. 



An animal which has its feeding apparatus formed, 

 and which must feed, in the manner that has been 

 described, can be, as has been already hinted, an in- 

 habitant only of peculiar parts of the sea ; and, large 

 as it is, it appears to be the only animal fitted by 

 nature for reaping the harvest of those places. If 

 we were to suppose the volume of the whale divided 

 into a million of herrings, and each of these to attempt 

 the capture of the food upon which the whale sub- 

 sists, it is probable that the whole million would not, 

 with the snap of their toothed mouths, which is an 

 operation of some labour in addition to their pro- 

 gressive motion through the water, catch one-tenth or 

 even one-hundredth part of what the whale catches 

 by means of its baleen. Thus, when we consider 

 the subjective find that, large as the whale is in pro- 

 portion to that on which it feedf", and singular as is 

 the structure of its feeding apparatus, it is yet a very 

 perfect instance. of adaptation, and acts a part in 

 nature which could not be acted by a differently- 

 formed animal. 



That it is found as a surface feeder in those parts 



of the sea that have the very extremes of ecasona 

 change, is in itself a proof that its food must be sea 

 sonal. But the seasonal history of the whale's foo< 

 is a subject of which very little is known, and upoi 

 which it is not easy to obtain information. The sea 

 where both whales and whales' food are found ii 

 summer, are a sealed book in the winter. Tln-y an 

 hidden under snow and ice ; and at that period of tin 

 year when the seal is set, or the mantle spread, th 

 storms are such that we dare not stay to see wha 

 goes on. But we have proofs from all the rest c 

 nature, both in the preparation of living creatures fo 

 the winter, and in their state while that season last.' 

 that the setting in of the polar winter cannot be ii 

 any way instrumental in the production of coritem 

 porary life, whatever influence the prey which i 

 affords may have on the life of other seasons. 



The quc3tion thus becomes : whence came thes 

 countless myriads of little animals, which tinge th 

 " green water " in the arctic seas, and form the chic 

 food of the balaente ?] Arc they wafted from mor 

 genial climates by the action of currents, or are the, 

 an annual or permanent production of those seas ii 

 which they are found ? The former they can hard!; 

 be, for if they migrated we should have some notic 

 oF them on their march. We should find them, fo 

 instance, dyeing the current of the gulf stream on th 

 American shores, as that is the only permanen 

 northern current in the Atlantic ; and we should alsi 

 have the common whale feeding in that current, am 

 in the places whence that current originates, becaus 

 animals of all kinds are found in those places wher 

 their food is most abundant. There are, however, n> 

 such productions in the West Indian seas, or in an 

 other seas within or near the tropics. The water ther 

 is usually remarkable for its transparency, so that th 

 bottom can be seen when the depth is considerable. 



The action of the tropical sun upon the sea mu- 

 evidently tend to a different action of life. The sola 

 influence there, by falling more perpendicularly thai 

 in the high latitudes, must act upon the waters to 

 much greater depth. The heat of the sun will hav 

 more effect on the bottom of the tropical sea at th 

 (Jppth of forty fathoms than it will upon that of th 

 arctic sea at the depth of twenty feet ; because in th 

 first of those localities it penetrates straight down 

 wards ; and in the second much is reflected from th 

 surface, and the rest is turned toward the surface b 

 the refraction, so that, beyond a comparatively smal 

 depth, there can be neither solar light nor solar hea 

 in the sea near the poles. But the refraction, ani 

 also the continual, or more continued presence of th 

 sun in the summer months, will cause a compara 

 lively greater action at or near the surface of th 

 polar sea. 



The summer action of the sun upon the polar sea 

 is, therefore, in a great measure a surface action 

 while that near the equator is more an action extend 

 ing to a considerable depth, or to- the bottom, i 

 the depth is not great. Accordingly, we find tha 

 the bottom of the tropical seas, wnerever it can b< 

 seen, is abundant in life and growth ; and that man; 

 of the productions are so highly tinted with coloui 

 that it has been described as being " as gay as ; 

 garden ;" and the more gay, the more hot and barrel 

 the adjoining land. But, even in our latitude, thi 

 productions of the sea bottom have little beauty o 

 colour; and when we reach nearer the pole the; 

 are fewer and lesa coloured still. 



