THE "SPOUTING" OF WHALES. 261 



Captain F. C. Hall, the commander of the unfortunate 

 " Polaris " Expedition, thus describes, in his ' Life with the 

 Esquimaux,' the spout of a whale : 



" What this blowing is like," he says, " may be described by asking 

 if the reader has ever seen the smoke produced by the firing of an 

 old-fashioned flint-lock. If so, then he may understand the 'blow ' of 

 a whale a flash in the pan and all is over." 



Captain Scammon, an experienced American whaling 

 captain, who, like Scoresby, could wield well both harpoon 

 and pen, in his fine work on ' The Marine Mammals of the 

 North- Western Coast of America,' writes to the same 

 effect. 



Mr. Herman Melville, who is not a naturalist, but has 

 served before the mast in a sperm-whaler and borne his 

 part in all the hardships and dangers of the chase, writes, 

 in his remarkable book, ' The Whale ' : 



" As for this ' whale-spout ' you might almost stand in it, and yet be 

 undecided as to what it is precisely. Nor is it at all prudent for the 

 hunter to be over curious respecting it. For, even when coming into 

 slight contact with the outer vapoury shreds of the jet, which will often 

 happen, your skin will feverishly smart from the acrimony of the 

 thing so touching you. And I know one who, coming into still closer 

 contact with the spout whether with some scientific object in view or 

 otherwise I cannot say the skin peeled off from his cheek and arm. 

 Wherefore, among whalemen, the spout is deemed poisonous ; they 

 try to evade it. I have heard it said, and I do not much doubt it, 

 that if the jet were fairly spouted into your eyes it would blind you." 



The only other eye-witness I will cite is Mr. Bartlett, of 

 the Zoological Gardens, whose experience and accuracy as 

 an observer of the habits of animals is unsurpassed. He 

 spent an autumn holiday in accompanying the late Mr. 

 Frank Buckland and his colleagues, Messrs. Walpole and 

 Young, in a tour of inquiry into the condition of the 

 herring fishery in Scotland. When the commissioners 



