His CAPTORS. 69 



The Ear. The Eye. The Lips. The Food. 



The ear of the whale is extremely small, and 

 so hidden, like a mole's, that you would not 

 find it without diligent search. Still the crea- 

 ture is thought by seamen to be quick of hear- 

 ing as well as sharp of sight. The organ for 

 the latter sense is about as large as the eye of 

 an ox. The head of a right whale, when his 

 mouth is open in feeding, or when he breaches, 

 as I have sometimes seen him do quite out of 

 water, is a most uncouth and formidable sight. 

 It looks at a little distance like the black, rug- 

 ged mouth of one of those lava caverns a trav- 

 eler meets with on the Island of Hawaii. The 

 huge lips close from below upward, and shut in, 

 when the monster has got a mouthful, upon his 

 immense whalebone cheeks, like the great valve 

 of a mammoth bellows, or the water gates of a 

 canal lock. 



The sole living of this vast animal is thought 

 to be upon a substance which I hear univers- 

 ally called by whalemen " right whale feed" 

 (medusae). It appears in the water like little 

 red seeds of the size of mustard, which is in- 

 trapped by the hair that fringes the leaves of 

 whalebone, as the whale swims along with 

 mouth open. It is, in fact, a little red shrimp, 



