THE WHALES. 23 



blood moves but slowly through them, and can 

 wait until the time comes for aerating the whole 

 mass. 



It will be seen, therefore, from this brief sketch, 

 that the whales have, even in proportion to their vast 

 bodies, far more blood than any other animals ; the 

 additional reservoirs containing blood enough to supply 

 the enormous creature for more than one hour. 



We have not yet come to the end of this subject. 

 This enormous mass of reserved blood would be per- 

 fectly useless, unless the respiration were modified so 

 as to enable it to be oxygenated in a short time. We 

 will take as an example the adult male spermaceti 

 whale, and see how he manages his respiration. 



When the whale comes to the surface for the 

 purpose of breathing, he lies nearly motionless, and 

 then goes through a series of enormous respirations, 

 called by the whalers, " spoutings." On the average, 

 he makes some sixty of these respirations in regular 

 succession, each occupying, as nearly as possible, ten 

 seconds; so that the whole time employed in this 

 operation is ten or eleven minutes. 



The act of expiration is very violent, and as the 

 animal always has the nostrils which are technically 

 named the " blow-holes " situated on the upper 

 part of the extremity of the head, filled with water, 

 this water is ejected in a jet of thick, dense, white 

 spray. The mode of respiration is very curious. 

 First, the animal ejects the consumed air in "spouts;" 

 the spouts occupying about three seconds. It then 

 draws one rapid breath, of about a second in duration, 

 and then sinks its nostrils beneath the water for about 



