254 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



from which it is taken, but because, whilst it shows correctly 

 the position of the blow-hole of the sperm whale, it also 

 exhibits exactly that which I wish to confute. The pub- 

 lishers of the valuable work in which this picture appeared 

 have generously consented to my reproducing it here. 



When, in describing, in 1877, the White Whale then ex- 

 hibited at the Westminster Aquarium, I said that whales 

 do not spout water out of their blow-holes, and that the 

 idea that they do so is a popular error, the statement was 

 so contrary to generally-accepted notions that I was not 

 surprised by receiving more than one letter on the subject. 

 One very reasonable suggestion made to me was that 

 although the lesser whales, such as the porpoises, which I 

 had had opportunities of watching in confinement at 

 Brighton for two years, and the Beluga, which had been 

 observed for a similar period at the New York Aquarium, 

 and also at Westminster, did not " spout," the respiratory 

 apparatus of the larger whales might be so modified as to 

 permit them to do so. Let us consider the construction of 

 the breathing apparatus which would have to be thus 

 modified, as shown in the porpoise. 



In the first place, there is a pair of lungs as perfect as 

 those of any land mammal, fitted to receive air, and to 

 bring the hot blood into contact with the air, that it may 

 absorb the oxygen of the air, and so be purified. But this 

 air cannot well be breathed through the mouth of an 

 animal which has to take its food from and in water ; so it 

 has to be inhaled only by the nostrils. If these were 

 situated as they are in land mammals, near the extremity 

 of the nose, the porpoise would be obliged to stop when 

 pursuing its prey, or, escaping from its enemies, to put the 

 tip of its nose above the surface of the water every time it 

 required to breathe. A much more convenient arrange- 



