86 HISTORY OF THE WHALE . 



The mysticetus usually remains at the surface to breathe 

 about two minutes, seldom longer; during this time it 

 " blows " eight or nine times, and then descends for 

 an interval usually of five or ten minutes ; but some- 

 times, when feeding, fifteen or twenty minutes. Ac- 

 cording to Scorseby, the whales have no voice, but 

 in blowing they make a loud noise. The vapor 

 they discharge is ejected to the height of some yards, 

 and appears at a distance like a puff of smoke : 

 they blow strongest, densest, and loudest when in a state 

 of alarm, or when they first appear on the surface after 

 being a time down. The depth to which they commonly 

 descend is not accurately known ; but, when struck, the 

 quantity of line they sometimes take out of the boats in 

 perpendicular descent, affords a good measure of the depth. 

 By this rule they have been known, according to Scorseby, 

 to descend about a mile, and with such velocity, that in- 

 stances have occurred in which whales have been drawn up 

 from a greater depth than the highest mountains in Scot- 

 land, and have been found to have broken their jaws, and 

 sometimes their crown-bone, by the blow struck against the 

 bottom. Whales are seldom found sleeping ; yet instances 

 of it have occurred among ice in calm weather. 



The food of these animals, so vast and strong, is too re- 

 markable not to claim a moment's attention. They have no 

 teeth, and hence we at once perceive they cannot prey on 

 the smaller of their own kind, or on the larger fishes ; and 

 their throat is so small, that they could not dispose of a 

 morsel swallowed by an ox. The well provided pasture 

 grounds, however, as they may be called, exhibit, to the 

 contemplation of the curious, one of the most wonderful 

 manifestations of Beneficence and Power. A very con- 

 siderable portion of those spaces in which this whale is 

 found is occupied by what is called green-water. Some- 

 thing analogous, though of a yellowish or reddish tint, oc- 



