116 THE VAST. 



day, who " was one of six that had killed sixty whales in 

 two days, of which some were forty-eight, some fifty yards 

 long." The discrimination here would seem to imply 

 actual measurement, though perhaps it was not very 

 precise. At present, nothing like such a length is attained. 

 The late Dr Scoresby, who was personally engaged in the 

 capture of three hundred and twenty-two whales, never 

 found one of this species that exceeded sixty feet. There is, 

 however, one caveat needful to be remembered ; that an 

 animal naturally long-lived, and which probably grows 

 throughout life, is not likely to attain anything like its 

 full dimensions when incessantly persecuted as the whale 

 of the Arctic Seas has been for ages past. However, a 

 whale of sixty feet is estimated to weigh seventy tons, or 

 more than three hundred fat oxen. 



The sperm-whale or cachalot, whose home is the vast 

 Pacific, from north to south and from east to west, holds 

 a place as to bulk between the whalebone whale and the 

 rorqual. Mr Beale, who is the authority in all that 

 concerns this animal, gives eighty-four feet as the length 

 of a sperm whale of the largest size, and its diameter 

 twelve or fourteen feet. Of this huge mass, the head 

 occupies about one third of the entire length, with a 

 thickness little inferior to that of the body ; while, as this 

 thickness is equal throughout, the front of the head ter- 

 minating abruptly, as if an immense solid block had been 

 sawn off, this part of the animal bears no small resemblance 

 to an immense box. The appearance of a whale when 

 disturbed, and going what seamen call " head-out," this 



