WHALES. 223 



When the common whale is at rest upon the water, 

 it looks like a shapeless mass some rock, black with 

 the beating of many storms, that rises above the sur- 

 face. On approaching it, the profile of its head ap- 

 pears triangular, but blunted at the snout, and carried 

 upwards in the upper part, at the elevation of which 

 are the blow-holes, and behind them there is a sort of 

 depression for the neck. The body is cylindrical, a 

 little thicker just behind the swimming paws than any 

 where else, and it tapers off to the tail in the form of 

 a frustum of a cone. Generally speaking, the whale is 

 of a glossy black upon the back, witb the sides slate- 

 coloured, and the under part of the purest white ; but 

 the colour is not uniform ; it seems to depend both on 

 age and situation the whales near the European coasts 

 being in general much whiter than those near the 

 coast of America. The tail is a curious piece of me- 

 chanism. It consists of two oval lobes, which are 

 entirely made up of tendinous fibres, of a very strong 

 texture, and these are connected with the greater part 

 of the muscular structure of the body. There are 

 three distinct layers of those fibres, the two external 

 ones lying in the direction of the lobes, and the internal 

 in the contrary direction. In consequence of this struc- 

 ture, the tail of the whale is, perhaps, the most moveable 

 organ in the animal creation. The whole of it can 

 move in all directions with equal ease, and every indi- 

 vidual part has also its motion ; and while it is so 

 powerful that a blow of it can stun thre largest animal, 

 or cut the strongest-built boat in two, its consistency 

 is so firm, that it sustains no injury from the most 

 powerful effort, or from striking against the hardest 



