THE CACHALOT 411 



in more profit than a prolonged voyage to the far distant 

 North in search of the more elusive Right Whale. 



FAMILY CATADONTID^E. 



CACHALOT (Catadon macrocephalus). 



Coloured Plate XXIX. Fig. i. 



The Cachalot, or Sperm Whale, is ' long-headed/ as 

 indicated by its generic name, and indeed its head occupies 

 about one-third of its total length of from fifty-four to sixty 

 feet. Probably when the species was more abundant, larger 

 ones were encountered; in any case it is still one of the largest 

 of the Cetaceans. In each side of the lower jaw of the 

 Cachalot are set twenty conical teeth of immense size and 

 strength, which grow from below as fast as they are worn 

 down above. The teeth are sometimes nine inches in length, 

 nine inches in girth, and weigh quite three pounds. In 

 the upper jaw there are no teeth, but grooves into which the 

 teeth fit. When once the mouth is closed no creature living 

 could extricate itself. This peculiarity of structure is 

 valuable, bearing in mind that the staple diet of the Sperm 

 Whale consists of gigantic squids or cuttle fishes, whose 

 slippery bodies need some special provision to ensure a firm 

 grip of them. 



Sperm Whales are found chiefly in the open and warmer 

 oceans, and that they travel from one ocean to another 

 has been satisfactorily proved. In the Atlantic Ocean 

 have been caught Whales in whose bodies were fixed 

 spears, which were mementoes of unsuccessful attacks 

 upon the monsters by natives of the Pacific islands. 



Sperm Whales are gregarious, and when the animals 

 were more numerous schools of several hundreds were not 

 uncommon ; the present-day whale-hunter would rejoice 

 if he encountered a school of forty or fifty. Generally only 

 one young one is produced at a birth, and it is weaned 

 when it is about a month old (Plate XLII. Fig. 2). 



Though the mouth of the Cachalot is devoid of baleen, 

 the animal in other directions atones for the lack of it. 



