WHALES. 239 



head, which, excepting the tail fin, is fully as long as all 

 the rest of the body. This animal is provided with a 

 dorsal fin. Its teeth are remarkably formidable. There 

 are twenty-one on each side of the lower jaw ; strong, 

 sharply-pointed, and incurvated backwards a little : the 

 principal ones are more than nine inches in length in a 

 large specimen, and they project more than four inches 

 from the jaw, so that its bite is much more powerful 

 than that of any land animal, the lion not excepted, 

 which, were it to come within the crunch of this terrible 

 animal, would be crushed to death in an instant. La 

 Cepede, with some poetic license certainly, but still, in 

 the main, true to the facts, says of it : " The physeter 

 rnicrops is one of the largest and most eruel and dan- 

 gerous inhabitants of the deep. Adding to formidable 

 weapons, the two great sources of strength, bulk and 

 velocity, greedy of carnage, a daring enemy, and 

 an intrepid fighter ; what part of the sea does he not 

 stain with blood ! " 



The small-eyed spermaceti whale is often more than 

 fifty feet in length, and it swims about with the greatest 

 activity, and an apparent consciousness that it is the 

 monarch of the deep. The blow of its tail is not, indeed, 

 so formidable as that of the common whale, and there 

 is no instance of its venturing to attack full-grown 

 animals of that species ; but sharks, dolphins, and por- 

 pesses are an easy prey ; it attacks the balaenopterae, 

 and tears large masses from their bodies ; and the 

 Greenland whale, when not full-grown, plunges into the 

 depths of the ocean at its approach. This animal takes 

 a considerable range ; and is probably more frequent 

 upon the Scottish coast than any of the other large 



