66 THE WHALE AND 



Physiology of the Right Whale. Not a Fish. 



CHAPTER IV. 



NEW ZEALAND CRUISING GROUND. 



Oh, the whale is free, of the boundless sea ; 



He lives for a thousand years ; 

 He sinks to rest on the billow's breast, 



Nor the roughest tempest fears. 

 The howling blast, as it rushes past, 



Is music to lull him to sleep : 

 And he scatters the spray in his boisterous play, 



As he dashes the King of the deep. Sea Song. 



flHE recent capture of one right whale, get- 

 -* ting fast to another, and pursuit of several 

 more, and the sight of them blowing all around, 

 close at hand and at a distance, naturally puts 

 one upon inquiring into the habits and resorts 

 of this great sea-monster. It is of the class 

 mammalia, order cetacea, warm-blooded, bring- 

 ing forth its young alive, generally one at a 

 time, and giving them suck. It is not, there- 

 fore, a fish, is without scales, breathes the air 

 through enormous lungs, not gills, and respires 

 by what is called its spout or blow-holes, a kind 

 of nostrils, or, in other words, two apertures 



