No. 1 8. [Front Nature, January 9, 1896, Vol. nil. pp. 223-5.] 



THE SPERM WHALE AND ITS FOOD 



THE services which H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco has 

 rendered to the science of oceanography, during the last ten 



>r twelve years, are familiar to every one interested in that 

 department of research. First in the small schooner "Hiron- 

 delle, " with no power but the strong arms of his Breton crew, 

 and later, in the large and perfectly equipped auxiliary steam 

 yacht " Princesse Alice," there is no branch of the science which 

 has not been enriched by his enlightened enterprise and his 

 unwearied perseverance. It may be interesting to the readers 

 of Nature to know something of what was achieved in the 

 Bummer cruise of 1895 in the waters of the North Atlantic, 

 chiefly in the vicinity of the Azores. The dredging and other 

 deep-sea operations conducted on board the yacht herself were 



successful, and produced an abundant harvest. The most 

 -tiiiL,' reMilt of the cruise, however, was due to the lucky 



hance of a cachalot or >perm whale being pursued by the 

 whale-fishers of Terceira, and killed almost under the bows of 

 the "Princesse Alice," and to the prompt measures taken by 

 the Prince to utilise this rare opportunity, the importance of 



h for science he immediately and intuitively perceived. 

 The preliminary reports of tl" 1 investigation of the material 

 thus collected by the I'rin. . in collaboration with the IVrtu- 



\vhal.-rs, go to show that an almo-t new and miMi-p. 

 anim.il kingdom \\ opened to the zoologist. 



A g< omit of tin- nature ,,| the nMilt- ha- ju-t been 



the title "Prise d'un Cachalot," to the Socite 



in the amphitheatre of the 



MuM-uin Oi the fardin d- ' . and two 



communic -atinns were made, on December 30, to the Academy 

 of Sciences by the Prince, of which one was from Prof. Joul 



