THE WHALE. 



257 



his band five or six feet long, pointed with steel 

 like the barb of an arrow, of a triangular 

 shape. As this person's place is that of the 

 greatest dexterity, so also it is of the greatest 



danger: the whale sometimes overturns the 

 boat with a blow of its tail ; or drives against 

 it with fury. In general, however, the ani- 

 mal seems to sleep on the surface of the water : 



when they are on their passage from one situation to 

 another, seldom exceeds four miles an hour; and though, 

 when urged by the sight of an enemy, or alarmed by the 

 stroke of a harpoon, their extreme velocity may be at 

 the rate of eight or nine miles an hour, yet we find this 

 speed never continues longer than for a few minutes, 

 before it relaxes to almost one half ; hence, for the space 

 of a few minutes, they are capable of darting through 

 the water with the velocity almost of the fastest ship 

 under sail, and of ascending with such rapidity as to leap 

 entirely out of the water. This feat they sometimes 

 perform as an amusement apparently, to the high ad- 

 miration of the distant spectators ; but to the no small 

 terror of the inexperienced fishers, who, even under such 

 circumstances, are often ordered by the fool-hardy har- 

 pooner to " pull away" to the attack. Sometimes the 

 whales throw themselves into a perpendicular posture, 

 with their heads downwards, and rearing their tail on 

 high in the air, beat the water with awful violence. In 

 both these cases the sea is thrown into foam, and the air 

 tilled with vapours : the noise in calm weather is heard 

 to a great distance; and the concentric waves, produced 

 by the concussions on the water, are communicated 

 abroad to a considerable extent. Sometimes the whale 

 shakes its tremendous tail in the air, which, cracking 

 like a whip, resounds to the distance of two or three 

 miles. 



When it retires from the surface, it first lifts its head, 

 then plunging it under water, elevates its back, like the 

 segment of a sphere, deliberately rounds it away towards 

 the extremity, throws its tail out of the water, and then 

 disappears. 



In their usual conduct, whales remain at the surface 

 to breathe, about two minutes, seldom longer ; during 

 which time they " blow " eight or nine times, and then 

 descend for an interval usually of five or ten minutes, 

 but sometimes, when feeding, fifteen or twenty. The 

 depth to which they commonly descend is not known, 

 though, from the eddy occasionally observed on the 

 water, it is evidently at times only trifling. But when 

 struck, the quantity of line they sometimes take out of 

 the boats, in a perpendicular descent, affords a good 

 measure of the depth. By this rule they have been 

 known to descend to the depth of an English mile, and 

 with such velocity, that instances have occurred, in 

 which whales have been drawn up by the line attached, 

 from the depth of 700 or 800 fathoms, and have been 

 found to have broken their jaw-bones, and sometimes 

 crown bone, by the blow struck against the bottom. 

 Some persons are of opinion that whales can remain 

 under a field of ice, or at the bottom of the sea in shallow 

 water, when undisturbed, for many hours at a time. 

 Whales are seldom found sleeping, yet in calm weather, 

 among ice, instances occasionally occur. 



The food of the whale consists of various species of 

 actiniae, cliones, sepiae, medusae, caned, and helices, or, 

 at least, some of these genera are always to be seen, 

 wherever any tribe of whales is found stationary and 

 feeding. In the dead animals, however, in the very 

 few instances in which I have been enabled to open their 

 stomachs, squillae or shrimps were the only substances 

 discovered. In the mouth of a whale just killed, I once 

 found a quantity of the same kind of insect. 



When the whale feeds, it swims w'ith considerable 

 velocity below the surface of the sea, with its jaws widely 

 extended. A stream of water consequently enters its 

 capacious mouth, and along with it large quantities of 

 water insects ; the water escapes again at the sides ; but 

 the food is entangled and sifted, a* it were, by the whale- 

 VOL. it 



bone, which, from its compact arrangement, and the 

 thick internal covering of hair, does not allow a particle 

 the size of the smallest grain to escape. 



There does not seem to be sufficient dissimilarity in 

 the form and appearance of the mysticete found in the 

 polar seas, to entitle them to a division into other spe. 

 cies ; yet such is the difference observed in the propor- 

 tions of these animals, that they may be well considered 

 as sub-species or varieties. In some of the mysticete, 

 the head measures four-tenths of the whole length of the 

 animal ; in others, scarcely three-tenths ; in some the 

 circumference is upwards of seven-tenths of the length, 

 in others less than six-tenths, or little more than one 

 half. 



The sexual intercourse of whales is often observed 

 about the latter end of summer : and females with cubs 

 or suckers along with them, being most commonly met 

 with in the spring of the year, the time of their bringing 

 forth, it is presumed, is in February or March, and their 

 period of gestation about nine or ten months. In the latter 

 end of April, 1811, a sucker was taken by a. Hull whaler, 

 to which the funis umbilicalis was still attached. The 

 whale has one young at a birth. Instances of two being 

 seen with a female are very rare. The young one, at 

 the time of parturition, is said to be at least ten if not 

 fourteen feet in length. It goes under the protection 

 ot its mother for probably a year or more, or until, 

 by the evolution of the whalebone, it is enabled to 

 procure its own nourishment. Supposing the criterion 

 of the notches in the whalebone heing indicative of the 

 number of years' growth to be correct, then it would 

 appear that the whale reaches the magnitude called 

 sine, that is, with a six feet length of whalebone, in 

 twelve years, and attains its full growth at the age of 

 twenty or twenty-five. Whales, doubtless, live to a 

 great age. The marks of age are, increase in the quan- 

 tity of gray colour in the skin, and a change to a yel- 

 lowish tinge of the white parts about the head ; a de- 

 crease in the quantity of oil yielded by a certain weight 

 of blubber; an increase of hardness in the blubber, and 

 in the thickness and strength of the ligamentous fibres 

 of which it is partly composed. 



The maternal affection of the whale, which, in other 

 respects, is apparently a stupid animal, is striking and 

 interesting ; the cub, being insensible to danger, is easily 

 harpooned ; when the tender attachment of the mother is 

 so manifested, as not unfrequently to bring her within 

 the reach of the whalers. Hence, though a cub is of 

 little value, seldom producing above a ton of oil, and 

 often less, yet it is sometimes struck as a snare for its 

 mother. In this case she joins it at the surface of the 

 water, whenever it has occasion to rise for respiration ; 

 encourages it to swim off ; assists its flight by taking it 

 under her fin, and seldom deserts it while life remains. 

 She is then dangerous to approach ; but affords frequent 

 opportunities for attack. She loses all regard for her 

 own safety in anxiety for the preservation of her young: 

 dashes through the midst of her enemies; despises the 

 danger that threatens her ; and even voluntarily remains 

 with her offspring, after various attacks on herself from 

 the harpoons of the fishers. In June, 1811, one of my 

 harpooners struck a sucker, with the hope of its leading 

 to the capture of the mother. Presently she arose closo 

 by the " fast boat," and seizing the young one, dragged 

 about a hundred fathoms of line with remarkable force 

 and velocity. Again she arose to the surface, darted 

 furiously to and fro, frequently stopped short, or sud- 

 denly changed her direction, and gave every possible 

 intimation of extreme agony. For a length of time she 



