194 THE WHALE AND 



Why found Dead. Recovery of sunk Whales on Soundings. 



The fortunate captain of the Cremona thinks 

 that in this instance, and others like it, the 

 whale, having been harpooned and deprived of 

 life, sunk, we know not why, and remained be- 

 low the surface until its specific gravity had 

 diminished, by the generation of gases within 

 the animal tissues, to such a degree that it rose 

 from indefinite depths below. 



Multitudes of the right whale sink immedi- 

 ately after capture, as we have already learn- 

 ed, and are a dead loss ; but this is seldom the 

 case with the sperm ; and the Cremona's lucky 

 prize in this instance may have been a sperm 

 whale that had to be abandoned by some other 

 ship, after being mortally wounded and dying 

 on the surface, without ever sinking. 



In what is called shore whaling, where there 

 are soundings, they fasten buoys, like as to an 

 anchor, to the sinking right whales, and then 

 watch the spot or the buoy, till the dead animal 

 rises after the expiration of two or three days. 

 It is probable that old age, reducing the whale 

 to leanness, and any other cause that dimin- 

 ishes the animal's adipose or oily matter, tends 

 to increase his specific gravity, and, consequent- 

 ly, the tendency to sink when killed. 





