212 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



one is attacked, all the others desert their wounded companion. The whale will sometimes lie with 

 its mouth wide open, as if waiting for the ' squid,' its principal article of food, and will close upon it- 

 like a trap. Some say that the squid is attracted by the pearly teeth of the whale. The sperm 

 whale is known by the act of blowing, which is performed with regularity every ten minutes. The 

 spout sent up can be seen at a distance of 3 miles. Mr. Eldridge tells me that when one is sighted 

 the boats leave the ships very quietly, the men makiug-as little noise as possible with their oars and 

 paddles. When struck, the whale generally sounds, or descends to a great depth, taking out the 

 lines belonging to the boat. When spent with the loss of blood it becomes unable to sound, but 

 passes rapidly along the surface, towing after it the boats-. If it does not turn, the men draw in 

 the line and dispatch him. When a whale is killed, the boats are fastened to its body and brought 

 alongside the ship. A hole is cut back of the head, a hook is inserted, and the fat or blubber is 

 cut in long, spiral-shaped strips and hoisted on deck. The head is then opened and the spermaceti 

 taken out. The fat is then boiled on board in the furnaces, the scraps serving as fuel. The oil 

 is then put in casks. It is generally supposed that it is water which the animal propels through 

 its vents, but such is not the case. It propels the vapor of water, just as all animals expire their 

 breath, only the vapor on coming in contact with the cold air immediately condenses, at first in a 

 white cloud and afterwards in a small fine rain. The volume of air thrown up along with the 

 surrounding moisture and condensed vapor often rises in a great jet. Sperm whales travel the 

 seas in great herds, from one hundred to three hundred, and they are said to acknowledge a 

 leader, who swims in advance and gives the signal of combat or flight by uttering a peculiar roar. 

 It can remain under water for an hour and twenty minutes at a time; sometimes it leaps out of 

 water fully 25 feet into the air and shows its entire body. The neck vertebra} of the sperm whale 

 are fused together. The upper surface of the broad, shoe-shaped skull has a large, basin-like 

 cavity, wherein the spermaceti is lodged. 



" The sperm whale is also remarkable for the ambergris which is sometimes found in it. 

 Ambergris is the most precious of all the ingredients used in the manufacture of perfumes. It is 

 now very generally acknowledged to be a morbid secretion of the liver of the spermaceti whale. 

 It is remarkable that the two most precious products of the sea, ambergris and pearl, are the 

 results of disease. Ambergris is found floating on the ocean and is sometimes washed ashore. It 

 is a littte lighter than water and bears some resemblance to the bark of a tree. It is described as 

 of a waxy ure, streaked with yellow, gray, and black, and emitting a peculiar aromatic odor. 

 It fuses at 140 and 150 F., and at a higher temperature gives out a white smoke, which con- 

 denses in a crystalline fatty matter. It varies in size from 1 to 30 pounds, but occasionally pieces 

 are found in whales weighing from 100 to 200 pounds. Its use in the manufacture of perfumes is 

 not so much on account of its fragrance as its peculiar property of causing other ingredients to 

 throw out their odors. It is compared in this respect to mordant in dyes, without which the color 

 would fail to become permanent. Perfumes that contain ambergris are very expensive, and those 

 made without it smell of alcohol. It varies in price from $12 to $50 per ounce. 



"Among the whales peculiar to this colony is the New Zealand Berardius. It is a species of 

 ziphoid whale. One was captured not long ago off the coast of Canterbury. It was described 

 by Dr. Julius Haast as 30J feet long, of beautiful velvety color, with a grayish belly. The female 

 Berardius gives birth to a single young one in the autumn. They feed chiefly on cuttle-fish. The 

 skull is most peculiar in having two crests at the occiput, of most unequal size and figure, and 

 the cheek-bones at the roof of the beak are raised into a pair of huge elevators. The upper jaw is 

 toothless, and the lower jaw has only two or three small teeth. The neck vertebra} are united, and, 

 moreover, the stomach is remarkable, even among cetacea, for the number of chambers it contains 

 there being six or seven divisions. 



