286 The Oceanographical Museum at Monaco 



a steamer, but it is very unlikely that such an experience 

 would leave its mark in nothing but a number of perfectly 

 repaired ribs. It would seem to point to a type of accident 

 to which whales are certainly exposed, and from which they 

 perhaps not infrequently suffer. 



The habitat of the whale is the air and the water, and its 

 functional economy has to be adapted to life in both elements, 

 or rather, to life sometimes in the one, at other times in the 

 other element. 



In one of the Prince's recent cruises in the Mediterranean 

 the yacht was found to be steaming in the wake of a whale, 

 which was evidently making a passage, and in a leisurely way. 

 The Prince seized the opportunity to follow the animal without 

 pursuing it, and this was done with such skill that it remained 

 unconscious of being followed. It kept a steady course, and, 

 to "keep station" with it, the "Princesse Alice" had to steam 

 at a speed of about ten knots. In these conditions the whale 

 came up to breathe at regular intervals <5f between ten and 

 eleven minutes, the intervals between the spouts being the same 

 almost to a second. This experiment supplies an important 

 constant in the natural history of the whale. It looks very 

 simple, but it will not be readily repeated, except perhaps by 

 the Prince himself. As the whale was on passage, it is unlikely 

 that it went far below the surface, but there is abundant 

 evidence that, in the search for food or to escape enemies, it 

 penetrates to very considerable depths. In these excursions 

 its body is exposed to rapid and great variations of pressure. 

 These have to be borne by the structural frame of the animal, 

 of which the ribs are an important part. 



It is generally assumed that, before sounding, the whale 

 fills its lungs with air, but this, being at atmospheric pressure, 

 is of no use in assisting the body to resist the external pressure 

 of a column of water equivalent, it may be, to many atmo- 

 spheres. How the power of resistance is, in fact, provided, 

 I am not anatomist enough to know, but it must be finite, and 

 it is easy to imagine conditions in which the animal, whether 

 in the pursuit of prey or in the endeavour to escape being made 

 itself a prey, may strain it beyond its limits, and the ribs of 



