TOOTHED WHALES. 29 



arose among the tired boat's crew, which they expressed in curses deep and loud. 

 These taunts maddened the Maori ; and no sooner was the boat again pulled up to 

 the whale than he bounded on the animal's back, and for one dizzy second was 

 seen there. The next, all was foam and fury, and both were out of sight. The 

 men in the boat shoved off, flung over a line as fast as they could, while ahead 

 nothing was seen but a red whirlpool of blood and brine. Presently a dark object 

 swam out, the line began to straighten, then smoke round the loggerhead, and the 

 boat sped like an arrow through the water. They were fast, and the whale was 

 running. But where was the New Zealander ? His brown head was on the boat's 

 gunwale, and he was hauled aboard in the very midst of the mad bubbles that 

 burst under the bows." 



When harpooned or lanced, females and young males generally make the most 

 frantic efforts to escape; and being very active in their motions, give the most 

 trouble to despatch. The larger whales, yielding eighty or more barrels of oil, 

 being less active animals, are in most cases killed more easily. This is 

 however, by no means always so ; and there are many instances on record where 

 large sperm-whales have turned with the utmost fury upon their pursuers, and 

 destroyed every object that came in their way, either by blows from the enormous 

 flukes, or by attacking with the head and lower jaw. There are, moreover, well- 

 authenticated instances, not only of sperm-whales demolishing the boats of a 

 whaling-ship, but actually attacking and sinking the vessel itself; and Captain 

 Scammon thinks it probable that many ships which have perished without leaving 

 any clue as to their fate, have been wrecked by these whales. In 1820 the Essex 

 was destroyed in the South Pacific by an infuriated cachalot, which made two 

 deliberate charges at the vessel, the first of which produced a considerable leak, 

 while the second stove in the bows. Again, in 1851, the Ann Alexander was sunk 

 in a similar manner off the Peruvian coast. Whether the ship Union, which was 

 wrecked in 1807 by striking a sperm-whale in the night, was actually attacked 

 by the animal, or whether this was a case of accidental collision, can never be 

 ascertained. As an instance of the ferocity of these whales, it may be mentioned 

 that in 1851, when the ship Citizen was whaling in the Atlantic, a wounded 

 cachalot, after attacking and demolishing one boat, made for a second, from which 

 it was only diverted by its attention being transferred to a third. This third boat 

 only escaped with difficulty, and the whale thereupon headed straight for the 

 vessel itself, which was then approaching under full sail. By putting the head 

 before the wind, the rush of the whale was, however, avoided ; and before the 

 animal could gather itself for a second charge, it was seized with its death-throes 

 and expired. In another case a sperm-whale, not content with having smashed a 

 whale-boat, actually seized the timbers in its jaws and chewed them into match- wood. 

 Extinct Sperm-whales, belonging mostly to extinct genera, were abundant 



Sperm-Whales. j n ne Pliocene period, their remains occurring in the crag deposits of 

 England and Belgium, and likewise in Australia. Some of these forms (Eucetus) 

 were of large size, and appear to have been allied to the living species ; but others 

 (Scaldicetus) were distinguished by having the summits of the teeth surmounted 

 with a cap of grooved enamel. A third type is considered to be closely allied to 

 the whale described below. 



