118 THE WHALE AND 



Term of Life. The Size and Weight of a Youngling. 



That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 

 Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds 

 In fable or romance, of Uther's son, 

 Begirt with British and Armoric knights. 



The size of a sixty foot right whale, which 

 is, perhaps, that of the average, can be some- 

 what clearly apprehended by Captain Scores- 

 by's estimate of its weight at seventy tons, or 

 the weight of three hundred fat oxen, of which 

 the oil in a fat subject will be nearly thirty tons. 

 Some whalemen judge it does not attain its full 

 size until twenty-five years, by certain notches 

 which they think they can observe in the slabs 

 of whalebone. But this can not be clearly as- 

 certained. The natural life of the animal is un- 

 doubtedly much longer. Analogy would lead 

 to the inference that it might be as long lived 

 as the elephant, to which it bears a resemblance 

 in certain other particulars besides its size. 



The calf of a large right whale at birth is 

 about fourteen feet long, and weighs a ton. The 

 milk of the cow is then very abundant. I have 

 heard those who have seen it say, that when 

 the mammae of a nursing cow whale are cut, the 

 flow of milk will whiten the ocean. The ascer- 

 tained fact that it brings forth its young only 

 one at a time, or at most two, and probably 



