24 MARINE AND AQUATIC TEESPASSERS. 



six seconds, during which the respired air is employed 

 in oxygenating the blood. 



All these movements are made with the regularity 

 of machinery, and each individual whale has its own 

 particular number of respirations. This is known so 

 well, that the whalers have only to watch one of these 

 animals going through its spoutings, to know how long 

 it will remain at the surface when it again makes its 

 appearance. Should the creature be disturbed before 

 it has " had its spoutings out/' and dive, it is sure to 

 return to the surface for a few minutes and finish 

 them, when it will generally sink itself by " settling " 

 down in the water, without performing the usual 

 diving movement. 



The same regularity extends to the duration of the 

 animal's sojourn beneath the water, so that the whalers 

 can always make their calculations as to the time 

 when a whale that has dived will again make its 

 appearance. 



The reader will probably have observed that the 

 respiration of the whale differs from that of ordinary 

 mammalia in one important respect. Terrestrial 

 mammalia do not make their respiration a separate 

 business of their life, but breathe as they go about 

 their ordinary duties, and without interrupting them. 

 Whereas the whales are obliged to set aside a certain 

 portion of their time for respiration, during which 

 they are perfectly quiescent, and only think about 

 oxygenating the vast storage of blood which is to 

 supply them during their sojourn under water. 



So we see that at least one-seventh of the whole time 

 of the creature is occupied in respiration. This 



