THE VAST. 



species that exceeded sixty feet. There is, how- 

 ever, one caveat needful to be remembered ; that 

 an animal naturally long-lived, and which proba- 

 bly 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 terminating 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 vast bluff head projected every few 

 seconds out of water, has a most extraordinary 

 appearance. 



Undoubtedly the largest of terrestrial animals 

 is the elephant, 



M The huge earth-shaking beast ; 

 The beast on whom the castle 



With all its guards doth stand ; 

 The beast that hath between his eyes 



The serpent for a hand." 



But the specimens with which we are familiar in 



our zoological gardens and menageries, are inade- 



115 



