His CAPTORS. 67 



Points of Difference between the Right and Sperm Whale. 



situated on the after part of its head and neck, 

 through which is forcibly expelled all the water 

 taken into the mouth in the act of feeding and 

 breathing, and all the warm air and vapor of 

 the lungs. 



The form of the spout serves to distinguish 

 at a distance the kind of whale, whether right 

 whale (Balsena mysticetus) or sperm (makro- 

 cephalus). The right whale, having two large 

 orifices on the top of the back part of its head as 

 it lies along in the water, the spout of vapor and 

 water ejected is forced up perpendicularly till 

 its power is spent, and it begins to fall over on 

 both sides, looking then, at a distance, in shape 

 like a Gothic elm parted into two branches. 

 This can be easily perceived when the whale is 

 either coming directly toward or going directly 

 off from the ship, the jets d'eau being some- 

 times thirty or even fifty feet high. The sperm 

 whale, on the other hand, has but one blow- 

 hole, and that a little on one side or corner of 

 its head, from which the ejected stream of breath 

 issues a little obliquely, and not straight up, 

 as in the right whale. Being only the confined 

 air of the lungs, and condensed into a white mist, 

 it vanishes instantly. 



