256 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



connected with a conical stopper, of a texture as tough as 

 india-rubber, which fits perfectly into a cone or funnel 

 formed by the extremity of the windpipe, and closes more 

 and more firmly as the pressure upon it is increased. 

 Whilst the orifice is thus guarded, the lower end of the 

 tube is surrounded by a strong compressing muscle, which 

 clasps also the glottis, and thus the passage from the blow- 

 hole to the lungs is completely stopped. 



There is nothing in this which indicates the possibility of 

 the spouting of water from the nostrils ; but as assertions 

 that water had been seen to issue from them were positive 

 and persistent, anatomists seem to have felt themselves 

 obliged to try to account for it somehow. Accordingly 

 the theory was propounded by F. Cuvier that the water 

 taken into the mouth is reserved in two pouches (one on 

 each side), until the whale rises to blow, when, the gullet 

 being closed, it is forced by the action of the tongue and 

 jaws through the nasal passages, somewhat as a smoker 

 occasionally expels the smoke of his cigar through his 

 nostrils. Although these pouches, or sacs analogous to 

 them, are found at the base of the nostrils of the horse, 

 tapir, etc., animals which do not " spout " from the nostrils 

 water taken in by the mouth the explanation was accepted 

 for a time. 



Mr. Bell held this opinion when the first edition of his 

 'British Quadrupeds ' was published in 1837, but before 

 the issue of the second edition, in 1874, he had found 

 reasons for taking a different view of the matter; and, 

 under the advice of his judicious editors, Mr. Alston and 

 Professor Flower (the latter of whom supervised the proofs 

 of the chapters on the Cetacea) his sanction of the illusion 

 was withdrawn as follows : 



"The results of more recent and careful observations, amongst 



