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VOYAGE OF THE ‘ECLIPSE.’ 101 
water entirely removed from the surface. This belief seems 
to have been suggested by the following facts:—(1.) When a 
Bottle-nose Whale, Hyperoodon rostratus, the only one visible 
at the time, has been harpooned, has dived, and has again 
appeared at the surface, it is occasionally accompanied by a 
number of other Whales not previously in sight. I have made 
this observation myself on several occasions. May not the 
harpooned Whale in its distress have sought the assistance of 
its slumbering friends, with whose position under water it was 
acquainted ? (2.) The appearance, after an absence of a number 
of hours, of Balena mysticetus, from under a field of ice of such 
a nature that air-holes could not have existed. (8.) The daily 
appearance and disappearance, with some regularity, of Whales 
at the surface. I have noticed this concerning all the cetaceans 
of the Greenland Sea. (4.) The fewness of Whales seen asleep 
at the surface, the fact that they are only seen during calm 
weather when the water is smooth, and never when the sea is 
stormy,—all of which I am able to corroborate. Keeping these 
statements in view, and having seen that the Narwhal may be 
found motionless at the surface with the ‘ blowhole” under 
water, a position practically equivalent to complete submersion, 
—and remembering (a) that the state of the sea is seldom so 
quiet as to permit an animal resting with comfort at the surface ; 
(b) that, the animal remaining motionless and the position 
assumed being necessarily involuntary, it is doubtful whether the 
spiracle would in all cases appear above water; (c) the position 
assumed being such that the spiracle would appear above water, 
—it is questionable, owing to the low power of flotation, whether 
inspiration would be safe without voluntary or highly complex 
reflex action on the part of the animal. I venture to arrive at 
the following conclusions, viz., that in the Cetacea, during the 
condition known as sleep, the animal remains absolutely motion- 
less and passive, respiration occurring at prolonged intervals, 
when the animal either awakes and performs the function 
consciously, or, its sleep remaining unbroken, the necessary 
movements are brought about by a series of reflex and involuntary 
actions acquired by habit. The depth at which the function is 
_ performed seems to be determined by depth to which the wave- 
Motion may extend, immunity from disturbance in all cases 
being secured; the animals appearing at the surface only when 
