THE CACHALOT. 43 



Description Capacious throat. 



THE CACHALOT, 



OF which there are seven different species as 

 enumerated by Mr. Pennant. One of the lead- 

 ing characteristics of the cachalot is a number 

 of teeth in the under jaw, but none iu the upper. 

 It is by no means of such an enormous size as 

 the common whale. The blunt-headed cachalot 

 has ahead exceedingly out of proportion, mak- 

 ing in bulk one half of the whole body : this is 

 as flat at the end, and as thick there as in the 

 middle. It grows to the length of about sixty 

 feet, and the circumference of thirty. The tongue 

 is small, but the throat, in contradistinction to the 

 former tribe, is amazingly capacious, so that at 

 one gulp it can swallow shoals of the smaller fish 

 down its enormous gullet, which lias been de- 

 scribed as extensive enough to admit an ox. 

 Crantz says, that one of these creatures being- 

 struck, threw up a shark quite whole, and four 

 yards long; and at the same time there were 

 found in its stomach bones of fish that were a 

 fathom long. Of this kind must be the whale 

 that swallowed Jonah the prophet. 



The cachalot race yields a smaller quantity of 

 oil than the common whale, which, however is 

 amply atoned for by its affording so abundantly 

 the two valuable articles of spermaceti and am- 

 bergris. 



It, is in the cavities of the head of this species, 



