112 A necdotal Natural History. 



measure in breadth almost one-fourth of the whole 

 length of the body. Even these dimensions, large as 

 they are, are sometimes exceeded ; a whale captured a 

 year or two since, and which was only sixty-five feet in 

 length, measured no less than twenty-seven feet in the 

 breadth of the tail. 



The muscular power of this organ is simplyenormous, 

 the animal being enabled by its aid to leap clear out 

 of the water to a height of several feet, a movement 

 usually known as 'breaching.' The chief danger in 

 whaling lies in the blows of the animal's tail, any one 

 of which is sufficient to dash the boat and its occu- 

 pants to fragments. 



Although in almost every pictorial representation of 

 the whale the eye forms a very conspicuous object, it 

 is in reality extremely small in comparison with the 

 size of the animal, sight being of little use in taking 

 the prey. The ear, too, is exceedingly minute, and 

 for a very good reason. 



It will be remembered, of course, that water, which 

 is much more dense than air, is a proportionately excel- 

 lent conductor of sound. If a man submerges his head 

 he can hear the beat of oars upon the surface, while 

 the boat to which they belong is a mile or more 

 distant. 



Again, if a swimmer dives beneath the water, and a 

 heavy blow be struck upon its surface above him, he 

 not only hears the sound, but is almost stunned by the 

 shock. So we can easily see that if the ear of the 

 whale were proportioned in size to the dimensions of 

 its owner, the animal would inevitably be killed by the 

 shock caused from the first blow of its own tail. 



In point of fact, the external ear of the whale is so 

 small that it will scarcely admit a crowquill. 



Here we are met by another problem. 



Even when the whale lies on the surface the ear 



