THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 161 



their valuable prize. The value of the ambergris is rather variable, 

 but it is always a costly article. 



The Spermaceti Whale, when it is in the open seas, lives chiefly on the 

 " squids," or cuttle-fish, which swarm in the ocean, and when it ap- 

 proaches laud feeds on various fish. It seems, however, to dislike the 

 propinquity of the shore, aud is very seldom taken in " soundings." It 

 is a gregarious animal, being seldom seen alone, but in large herds, tech- 

 nically called " schools," and consisting of several hundred in number. 

 The " schools " are generally divided into two bands, the one consisting 

 of young males and the other of females. Each band of females is un- 

 der the command of several large males, 

 who exercise the strictest discipline over -==^^fc 



their harems, and will not permit any in- 

 truder to join their society. From their 

 office, these leaders are called the school- 

 masters. 



The teeth of the Spermaceti Whale 

 are conical and slightly curved, some- 

 times reaching the length of some eight 

 or nine inches. To Europeans these The Spermaceti Whale {Cd- 

 teeth are of great value, but to the ^^^^'^ 3Iacrocephalus). 



Fijians, Tongans, etc., they are almost priceless, a single tooth being 

 thought a present fit for one king to make to another, or to be laid up 

 in the temple as an oflTering to the idol. 



The Spermaceti Whale does not seem to choose any particular por- 

 tion of the year for the production of its young, but is found at all sea- 

 sons in charge of its offspring. Moreover, young Whales, or " cubs," 

 are found at all sizes and ages simultaueously roaming the seas, either 

 in company with their parents or turned loose upon the world to shift 

 for themselves. There is but a single cub at a birth. The milk of the 

 animal is exceedingly rich and thick, as indeed is the case with the 

 milk of all Whales. 



This animal is very widely spread over the world, as it is found 

 in almost every one of the aqueous portions of the globe, with the ex- 

 ception of the Polar Seas. Several of these creatures have been discov- 

 ered off our own coasts, and a few have been stranded on the beach. A 

 Cachalot measuring fifty-four feet in length was driven ashore in the 

 Firth of Forth in 1769, and its appearance off the Orkneys is said to 

 be no very uncommon occurrence. 



DOLPHINS. 



The members of this family do not possess the enormous head which 

 characterizes the true whales, and have teeth in both jaws, although 

 14* L 



