192 WHALES AND WHALE FISHERIES xiv 



in a straight line between the front end of the head and the 

 middle of the end of the tail, or following the curves of the 

 surface of the body, which of course would give a consider- 

 ably greater length. I have taken pains to obtain careful 

 measurements of all the skeletons available of perfectly adult 

 or even aged animals in various museums which I have visited, 

 and it is curious how nearly alike they are. Allowing for 

 the distance between the vertebrae and for the soft parts 

 at either end, about 55 feet seems to be the usual length of 

 the male sperm whale, and I have never been able to find any 

 substantial proof that any one has even attained the length 

 of 60 feet, fairly measured. The skeleton at Burton 

 Constable, prepared from a whale which came ashore on the 

 Yorkshire coast in 1825, is that of a very aged animal, and 

 now measures 48 feet 4 inches in length, the vertebrae being 

 articulated in close apposition, but even if 10 feet are allowed 

 in addition, this would not bring it up to 60 feet. In the 

 museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons is a lower jaw 

 presented by the late Mr. W. L. Crowther, of Hobart Town, 

 which was considered as that of the largest sperm whale ever 

 killed in the Tasmanian seas, and quite unique on account of 

 its size. It only measures one inch more than the jaw of 

 the Yorkshire specimen. The female of this species, contrary 

 to what occurs among the whalebone whales, is very much 

 smaller than the male. 



The products of the sperm whale which render it 

 commercially valuable when killed are (1) sperm oil, obtained 

 by boiling the thick coating of blubber which everywhere 

 envelops the body of the animal; (2) spermaceti, contained 

 in the great cavity on the top of the head: (3) ambergris, 

 formerly used in medicine, and now in perfumery a con- 

 cretion formed in the intestine of this whale, and often found 

 floating on the surface of the seas it inhabits. Its genuine- 

 ness is proved by the presence of the horny beaks of the 

 cephalopods on which the whale feeds. 



The capture or " fishery " of the sperm whale will be 

 spoken of later on in conjunction with that of the other species 

 of whales. 



All the other large whales which are of importance to man 



