148 CURIOUS PECULIARITIES OF SPERM WHALES, 



five feet, frequents the rocky bays of Greenland, and is con- 

 sidered a tender morsel by the natives. There is also a 

 " Rorqual " of the Southern seas, an animal of great power 

 and a fast swimmer, very difficult to capture. The most 

 valuable whale in the Southern seas is the Cachalot or 

 Sperm whale, which supplies the spermaceti and amber- 

 gris of commerce. This immense animal, which grows to 

 the length of seventy to eighty feet, is found in almost every 

 part of the warm latitudes. It has some curious peculiar- 

 ities : the head has in front a very thick, blunt extremity 

 called the snout or nose, and constitutes one-third of the 

 whole length of the animal ; at its junction with the body, 

 the animal has what the whalers call a " bunch of the neck," 

 a large protuberance en the back, immediately behind which 

 is the thickest part of the body, which from this part grad- 

 ually tapers off to the tail ; and where this commences there 

 is another large prominence called the " hump " after which 

 the body contracts so much as to become finally not thicker 

 than the body of a man. An immense cavity in the head 

 contains cells filled w^ith oil, which is fluid when the animal 

 is alive, and after its death takes a concrete form known as 

 spermaceti. The size of this cavity may be judged from 

 what is said, that in a large Avhale it sometimes contains a 

 ton, or more than ten barrels of spermaceti. The food of 

 this huge monster consists principally of a species of poly- 

 pus called '* squid "by the sailors, and it is supposed that 

 they are attracted by the shining white of the inner part of 

 th-e whale's mouth. The sperm whale is generally seen in 

 herds, or " schools" as they are called, consisting of several 

 hundreds. With each herd of females, large males or 

 "schoolmasters" are always associated, who are extremely 

 jealous of intruders, . and fight fiercely to maintain their 

 rights. The large whale is generally incautious, and if 

 alone is attacked without much difficulty, and is easily 

 killed, as he frequently after receiving the first plunge of the 



