His CAPTORS. 79 



Notes in Physiology. The Right Whale's Head. 



CHAPTER V. 



Spout ! spout ! spout ! 

 The waves are purling all about, 

 Every billow on its head 

 Strangely wears a crest of red. 

 See her lash the foaming main 

 In her flurry and her pain. 



Take good heed, my hearts of oak, 

 Lest her flukes, as she lies, 

 Swiftly hurl you to the sMes. 



But lo ! her giant strength is broke. 

 Slow she turns, as a mass of lead ; 

 The mighty mountain whale is dead. Whaler's Song. 



FJIHEIIE are some points in the whale's phys- 

 -- iology, and in the way of disposing of the 

 blubber, not noted in previous chapters, which 

 are so well described in parts of a sailor's yarn 

 that I have found in a loose number of the 

 Sailor's Magazine, of which most excellent pe- 

 riodical we have several on board, that I will 

 take from it here and there, with corrections, 

 what may be wanting to complete the integ- 

 rity of our description. Although it is difficult 

 to describe the head of a right whale without the 



